Cox, Rohrabacher Lead Reform of House GOP

As part of a push to limit the power of senior members of Congress, House Republicans approved party rule changes Tuesday drafted by Orange County Reps. Christopher Cox and Dana Rohrabacher.

The House Republican Conference, which is composed of the 176 GOP representatives, approved a new rule, championed by Cox, that limits to six years the time that a Republican can serve as the ranking member of a House committee. The move is part of a long-shot strategy aimed at also limiting the terms of the Democrats who chair committees.

The top Republican on a House committee is known as the ranking minority member. Although the ranking member’s power is limited, he or she can have considerable influence on legislation.

“A six-year rotation is not pure meritocracy,” Cox (R-Newport Beach) said in an interview. “But it is far closer to one than the unbridled seniority system that we have now.”

Under current rules, the heads of Democratic committees and Republican ranking members are elected every two years by their respective party caucuses. Although the power of the seniority system has been eroded in the last two decades, longevity still plays a major role in the selection of committee leaders.

The 258 House Democrats are scheduled today to consider a change in their party’s rules that would impose term limits on committee chairs. If that move fails, Cox said he will urge Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) to offer a Republican proposal to the full House that would impose term limits on top committee posts.

In other action, House Republicans approved a new rule proposed by Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) that would give the Republican Conference a greater voice in offering instructions to the House members of House-Senate conference committees. Conference committees hammer out differences between House and Senate versions of legislation.

In effect, the Rohrabacher rule would prevent a senior Republican committee member from blocking efforts by other members of his party to instruct House conferees on how to craft legislation.