Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: Motion-To-Vacate

Source:The New Democrat

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) praised former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Wednesday, the day after the historic 216–210 House vote to remove him from office.

“We had a great personal relationship, trying to lead to very different parts of the American government. I think he has much to be proud of,” the Kentucky Republican said. “I’m one person who is extremely grateful for his service.”

Sen. McConnell said he hopes whoever is the next speaker eliminates the motion to the vacate, the procedure that was used to force a vote to oust Speaker McCarthy.

“I think it makes the speaker’s job impossible, and the American people expect us to have a functioning government,” he told reporters… 

Source:Twitter- U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky)

From C-SPAN

Again to try to translate Congressional speak into basic American English: what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is saying here, is that the Speaker of the House shouldn’t be able to lose their job, because just more than a handful of members of the majority conference (what Republicans call majority caucus) decide they know longer want the current Speaker because of this decision or that one. And then they just move with this motion to vacate on the House floor and get little more than a handful of votes from their own conference, along with 212 House Democrats, to vote to vacate the current Speaker. 

I think House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries lost an opportunity before Tuesday, to offer to Speaker McCarthy the ability to save his job, in exchange for House Democrats getting a return to regular order in the House and no longer govern out of crisis. But instead go back to the committee process, where all legislation is marked up, gets amended, gets passed out of committee before it makes it to the floor and then where both minority members and majority members of the House, could offer and have their relevant amendments voted on the floor up or down. 

Here’s another opportunity for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: center-right House Republicans would need a lot of House Democratic votes to amend the motion to vacate and require a majority of the majority, before the motion is even voted on. Jeffries could get House Republicans those votes, in exchange for returning the House of Representatives back to regular order.