Thread by @Fritschner

This is the biggest concession the Freedom Caucus has won and an absolutely devastating blow to McCarthy's power, the moderates, and governance in the House

https://twitter.com/sarahnferris/status/1611464618034995203

If current committee formulas remain unchanged (party-split= same as last Congress so it should) the split on the Rules Committee will be 9R - 4D. As @sarahnferris notes, a bloc of 3 R's could break off and defeat a vote in Rules 7-6.

The Rules Committee controls the House floor

We are into arcane House procedure now, but this is what it's all about. The Rules Committee decides what bills come up on the House Floor and how they come up. When a Committee passes a bill and then you read about individuals or groups negotiating changes, those happen in Rules

A bill passes committees of jurisdiction, say Ways and Means for tax and health sections of the Inflation Reduction Act, and then Rules writes the final draft that comes up on the House Floor. It can and often does completely rewrite the bill *if the Rules Cmte members vote to*

The Rules Committee has the power to take a resolution introduced by @RepDonBeyer saying "puppies are awesome" and rewrite it as "puppies suck, kittens are awesome" and put it on the floor. Rules members are leadership allies; the Chair is one of the most important Speaker allies

Rules doesn't just control what bills come up on the House Floor, it controls HOW they come up- what amendments are allowed:
1) Closed rule = no amendments
2) Open rule means = unlimited amendments
3) Structured rule = Rules Committee chooses some amendments and blocks others

This is how the House actually passes bills. There are ways to bypass the Rules Committee, but they come with high hurdles (ie 2/3 vote for suspension of the rules) or delays (discharge petition). For practical purposes the Rules Committee is key to passage of nearly all bills

This was negotiated. The rebels' initial demand was 4 seats. Punchbowl reported McCarthy countered with 2. They settled at 3 and that's what HFC wanted, that's the Freedom Caucus' magic number, bc Kevin McCarthy gave them a veto over the entire legislative process in the House.

It's hard to imagine a worse outcome for the Republicans in Biden districts than this. These right wing loons who just held the Speaker vote hostage for four days and counting will have absolute power to force them to cast votes on stuff that could wreck their reelection chances

But way more importantly, it's a huge blow to governance. The Omnibus bill that is currently funding the government through September came to the floor via the Rules Committee. The increase of the debt limit that prevented a debt default last year came to the Floorr through Rules

Note- the ratio of members on committees by party (the "formula" above) is determined by the rules of the House, which will be the first thing the House considers upon election of a Speaker. McCarthy could deprive the Freedom Caucus of a legislative veto by altering the formula!

But looking at the negotiations, the commentary from Perry et al that he will walk if they aren't happy with how their agreement "framework" gets translated, and the fact that they can kick McCarthy out at any time with a motion to vacate, my read is that this is the deal

This is a key detail from @haleytalbotnbc @sahilkapur I hadn't seen. So the Freedom Caucus are letting Kevin choose who goes on Rules from a list... I wonder how that will play out. No idea who they want or who he wants. Where the rubber meets the road:

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1611415692422561803