How House rules could look different in a Democratic Congress

As House Democrats retake the majority in January, they have the opportunity to play by a different set of rules in the lower chamber.The rules package for the next Congress will be introduced in the coming weeks, as Democrats are set to hold at least 255 seats in the House and will be able to usher in several adjustments to the current GOP rules if they can coalesce behind a package. In their first week back after their sweeping midterm wins, Democrats have floated several ideas for rules changes.One major talking point has been term limits for committee chairs, with varying proposals from Democrats such as Reps. Susie Lee (D-NV) and Brad Schneider (D-IL). Lee is suggesting the chamber limit committee chairs and ranking members to four terms in their seats, allowing them to seek a waiver by a two-thirds vote in order to exceed that limit. “This is no slight to the current chairs at all,” Lee told the Washington Examiner. “It is just a recognition that young voters, people across America, gave us an indication that they want change and they want fresh leadership.”“I believe that we should change the way we do things and give a runway for young leaders to assume roles of leadership,” she said.Lee said she has heard support for the idea from several colleagues, including Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who serves as the ranking member on the House oversight committee, and Jim Himes (D-CT), ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.Lee also said she backs Schneider’s proposal for a nonbinding committee vote.“It is a simple bill that would, at the end of each term, the members on a committee, whatever the committee is, would vote to keep or replace [the committee chair],” Schneider told the Washington Examiner on the proposal he is pushing.He described the proposal as a nonbinding, private vote, saying the tally of that committee vote would then be reported to the whole caucus before it votes on whether to reelect or to replace the committee’s chair.Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said the idea of term limits for committee chairmen would be “worth looking at,” but said he has mainly been focused on helping the new members get settled in as the House Democrats’ battleground chair.In addition to the idea of term limits for committee chairs, another way Democrats could change the rules in January is allowing proxy voting.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who is angling to become speaker in January, supported the idea of adding proxy voting for representatives who are expectant mothers and new parents to the rules package. The idea was pushed in 2025 by Reps. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), and Mike Lawler (R-NY).“I certainly will continue to strongly support — and I’m thankful for the leadership of Brittany Pettersen and Sara Jacobs and other members of the House Democratic Caucus in this regard — support proxy voting for expectant mothers and for new parents,” Jeffries said in a Thursday press conference.Proxy voting, where an absent member of Congress can request a present member to cast a vote in his or her name, is not currently allowed in the chamber. Many Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), have deemed the voting method “unconstitutional,” arguing U.S. law requires members to be physically present for a quorum.During the same Thursday press conference, Jeffries said he has spoken with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), ranking member of the rules committee, and from those conversations, Jeffries did not believe Democrats would try to change the rules governing impeachment proceedings. Jeffries said that, regarding rules allowing individual members to bring forth privileged impeachment resolutions before a congressional investigation occurs, he believes that “there’s no expectation” that Democrats will change those rules.That means that come January, if Democrats do not make changes, individual representatives can continue to bring impeachment charges to the floor without an initial congressional investigation, as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) did against War Secretary Pete Hegseth this week.The Washington Examiner also spoke with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who has been active in proposing and securing changes to House rules for the House’s progressive caucus in the past. She said she is currently going through possible proposals to the rules package that help Democrats usher in their agenda.JEFFRIES SAYS DEMOCRATS WILL BACK THE RETURN OF PROXY VOTING NEXT CONGRESS“We’re going through that right now,” Jayapal said. “We have a number of different things that we are proposing. I think that there’s a desire to make sure that we can get bills to the floor that a majority of the caucus wants to see. So we’re in the process of figuring out exactly what those things are.”Democrats will likely debate and finalize their rules package over the next few weeks, with the bill’s vote typically on the first day of the new Congress, after the new speaker is sworn in.