Can House conservatives remove Boehner as Speaker? Not likely.
As rumors swirl and fade about John Boehner鈥檚 removal from the speakership, it鈥檚 a good time to clarify a few things about House process and its history.
No speaker has ever been removed from office mid-Congress. If members want to remove a speaker from office, they would need to make a motion to declare the chair vacant. That motion has never succeeded.
That includes Speaker Cannon (R) of Illinois. Several news outlets have said聽the motion to remove the speaker was invoked against Cannon. That鈥檚 not accurate. Cannon鈥檚 鈥渙verthrow鈥� did not remove him from office. Rather, he was 鈥渙verthrown鈥� because his power as Speaker was significantly curtailed. In addition to being Speaker, Cannon was the chair of the Rules Committee and was also responsible for assigning all members and chairs to each standing committee of the House. Both of these tools gave him exceptional power to control House business. On March 17, Rep. George Norris (R) of Nebraska offered a simple resolution to strip both powers from Speaker Cannon聽on a week that many of Cannon鈥檚 allies were missing from Congress, largely due to St. Patrick鈥檚 Day.
After the resolution passed two days later, Cannon, to the surprise of practically everybody in the chamber, entertained a motion to declare the office the Speaker vacant. That motion failed. In other words, Republicans did not want to remove Cannon from office. They just didn鈥檛 want him exercising as much power as he had during his tenure.
The surprising part of this story is not that Cannon was not removed. The surprise was that Cannon entertained a motion that could remove him from office at all. House rules聽lean heavily in the Speaker鈥檚 favor. This is why Boehner will likely remain Speaker in the 114th unless he voluntarily steps down.
Speakers have the right of recognition. They choose who will be recognized to make a motion from the members on the floor. Without the Speaker鈥檚 recognition, members can鈥檛 do much of anything. Speakers can also actively ignore members they do not want to make a motion. If the Speaker does not like the reason the member has sought recognition, he or she can simply refuse to recognize them. Without recognition, even a privileged motion goes nowhere. This makes removing the Speaker through the motion to declare the office vacant highly unlikely because the Speaker or his designee would have to allow the motion to be put before the House in the first place.
Procedurally, the more likely scenarios would involve intense collusion between Republicans and Democrats over the course of several votes. While it鈥檚 possible, I don鈥檛 believe Pelosi, Democrats, or the faction that wants a new Speaker are willing to go to those lengths. Though if it did happen, you鈥檇 be watching one of the more exception episodes in House history.
Joshua Huder publishes his Rule 22 blog at http://rule22.wordpress.com.
