Who says hard things can't be fun? Well, I don't really know if home buying is hard, but I do know the next incredible duo of Lindsay sitkoff And Matt Windsor, licensed real estate agents in the DMV, make home buying fun. They're kind, talented and walk their clients through every step from the first inkling of wanting to purchase to signing on the dotted line and everything in between. Lindsey And Matt, listen to your every need and help you find that perfect next home. For listeners of the your good news podcast. They'd love to help you. Head to Lindsay and matt.com. That's LYNDSI and M A. T t.com. To learn more about this duo, head to the shownotes to reach out and mention my name Catherine from New York, good news podcast when you do. Hi, and welcome to the your good news podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty. Each Thursday, I'll give you the scoop on the good news coming out of Washington, and how you can get involved with this thing called democracy. Welcome back to another episode of the Oregon news podcast. In recent weeks, Congress has dominated in the news first for the debt ceiling deal. And then well, the house has dominated the news last week because members of the House Freedom Caucus, a part of the House Republican Conference essentially forced a floor shut down. So what's the news coming out of Washington this week? Well, it centers on the very powerful House Rules Committee and the procedures that lead to the House floor. So let's take a peek behind the curtain. The House Rules Committee is a standing committee in the House of Representatives that plays the crucial role plays a crucial role in the legislative process, I should say. And it's responsible for determining the rules and procedures under which bills are considered and debated. So it creates the framework, the guidelines how this is actually going to happen when a piece of legislation you see those very important votes on the floor. There's been a rules vote prior to that. The committee is composed of members of the House appointed by the speaker. It's one of those special committees in Congress, it is appointed by the speaker. It typically consists of nine members from the majority party and four members from the minority party. That's important because basically it ensures that the majority party can get whatever type of role they want on the floor. It also will play implications of when we get to the actual house floor, but we're still in committee so it's nine or the majority party for of the minority party. So this year, it is nine House Republicans and four House Democrats. The primary function of the committee is to establish the rules governing the debate and amendment process for bills before they're considered by the full house. They're basically ensuring that everything is correct and germane and what amendments could come on the floor are packaged correctly. When a bill is first introduced into the house, remember, it goes to the committees of jurisdiction. So it goes through a review and markup process in those committees. House Rules Committee gets those finished products. Before the bill reaches the floor, it has to go through the Rules Committee, and the committee reviews the bills and decides how it will be debated, amended and voted upon. It has the authority to establish the length and time of debate which is important, the number of amendments that can be offered and types of amendments that can be offered the procedural aspects of the legislative process. The Rules Committee also has the power to limit and guide the consideration of bills. These bills can determine the amount of time allocated for the debate specify when the amendments can be offered and which one's the committee's rules and decisions can significantly influence an outcome of the bill. So think of it. Think of the House Rules Committee as sort of a gatekeeper and a creates kind of like I said the rules of the road. The Rules Committee is responsible for managing special rules. And special roles are specific to each bill and designed to tailor the procedures for that particular piece of legislation. I know it may feel like I am reading out of a thesaurus this week or not at the source a dictionary giving you definitions of everything. But I think it's so important to better understand why what we're seeing on the House floor is happening. And so to better kind of give you that peek behind the curtain I want to give you the rules of the road. So the House Rules Committee regulates the flow of legislation and shaping the parameters. The impact is really really understated but so important. So with this in mind, the role that the House Rules Committee has, I want to give you one more piece of Intel so Let's go back in our minds to January when then rep. Kevin McCarthy was vying for the speakership. And he worked to come to an agreement with parts of his conference, the House Freedom Caucus on a variety of things, it included, which members of the House Freedom Caucus would be on certain committees, how legislation will come to the floor. And that was really important for the House Freedom Caucus, they talk a lot about the importance of regular order. And they were really pushing for some of these things. It isn't that the rest of the House Republican Conference doesn't feel strongly about it. It was it's just the emphasis the House Freedom Caucus puts on it. And so with that in mind, you know, then rep Ken McCarthy made some agreement, those the contours of those agreements have never really been made public. But you know, you think about, there was a deal about how things were coming to the floor. And then fast forward to the debt deal. The House Freedom Caucus is crying a foul from how the deal got to the floor, if you remember, in you may or may not, but I'm a political nerd. So I do remember, when it went through the House Rules Committee, the debt deal, Freedom Caucus members to the Freedom Caucus members voted with the Democrats, not on how it was going to proceed to the floor. That is a big deal. The importance of that nine Ford, you know, majority to minority party is really important for that to ensure that the way the majority party wants to get things done is done. So that was a huge kind of splinter. With a debt deal in mind with the agreements from January in mind, it came to a head last week. So over the last week, you essentially saw that the House Freedom Caucus shut down the floor, when you can not vote on a rule. When you can't vote on how the legislation is going to be debated. Nothing else can happen. And so this is another inflection point of politics, maybe over the policy. Those Republicans that were blocking the rule may a very well agreed with the legislation. But it was the procedural things that they wanted to really emphasize. And I would also argue they're trying to ensure that their agreements from January, the majority of it gets continued through this Congress. Because if you remember, there's that one member can move a motion to vacate, which basically means a vote on the House floor if if the speaker can keep his job, there is a lot hinging on the House Freedom Caucus, continue to be a productive part of the House Republican Conference, I'm not saying anything that's you can't see. And I think we as Americans can better understand this is a political thing. That is getting played out on a national stage. I think all of us would well hope that there is a path forward on this because this is not, I would argue a productive use of time. So as I'm recording this, I'm recording this on Sunday afternoon, it will be interesting to see what happens in the House floor, you know, committees can can continue their business, but anything that was scheduled or expected to be on the floor, that is really up in the air. And that, you know, can cause some concern, it causes me concern. So more to come on this, but I think it's important to better understand the rules committee are gatekeepers of the house, they create the rules, how things are amended, when it gets to the House floor, those votes are typically procedural. Those votes are typically supported overwhelmingly by the majority party, the minority party doesn't help out. It's just how it always happens. And then legislation can be voted up or down. We are missing a crucial piece right now. With those rule votes, not getting past. So more to come. I'll keep you posted on what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing. Thank you as always for tuning in to another episode of The your good news podcast. As always find me on Instagram. My handle is at Katherine Getty. Like subscribe, make sure that you get each week, an episode in your inbox. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and see you next week on another episode of The your good news podcast.