Freedom Caucus's rogue procedural move raises questions about consequences

Key members of the House Freedom Caucus went rogue with parliamentary procedure on the House floor while GOP leaders were far away and focused on other matters on Election Day, raising questions about whether the group or its chair will face any repercussions.

And with House GOP leadership elections and rules considerations also occurring this week, how leaders handle the matter will be closely watched by the party’s conservative hard-liners.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the new Freedom Caucus chair, and Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), its former chair, broke normal House protocol with their surprise move to try to kill the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate provisions that reduce benefits for some government retirees.

The bill has broad bipartisan support with 330 co-sponsors. But it was at the center of division in the House GOP in September when enough Republicans joined with Democrats to sign on to a discharge petition to force a vote on the bill. 

Some GOP critics not only disagreed with the underlying legislation, seeing it as too expensive, but also saw the tactic of going around leadership and using a discharge petition to force a vote as a major breach of party loyalty. Successful discharge petitions are very rare.

The House was set to take action on the underlying bill when Congress returned after the election. But the move from Harris and Good aimed to eliminate the requirement to do so.

They made the move during a pro forma session of the House when a member of the majority party is tasked with formally gaveling in and out, fulfilling the constitutional requirement that neither chamber of Congress adjourns for more than three days without the consent of the other. 

The sessions typically last only a few minutes and see no significant legislative action.

That changed when Harris presided pro forma at 5 p.m. EST on Election Day, while party leaders were scattered across the country and members had their attention on the election.

“I ask unanimous consent to lay H.R. 82 on the table,” Good said, which would kill the requirement to consider it.

No other members were present to object to the request. House staff could be heard on a hot mic telling Harris to say: “The chair cannot entertain the gentleman’s request.”

Harris pushed back, asking, “Why’s that?” And after several minutes of discussion, Harris overruled the directions.

“Without objection, so ordered,” Harris said.

After Harris adjourned, a staff member could be heard saying: “That didn’t even do anything.” 

But it is the members’ understanding that the move was, in fact, successful in nullifying the discharge petition.

“It’s been tabled. So for now, the bill is dead. That doesn’t mean it can’t be resurrected,” Good told The Hill on Friday.

Outgoing Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), a sponsor of the Social Security Fairness Act, had a sarcastic rebuke.

“Now that this new precedent has been created, I plan to seek [unanimous consent] to send every American a pony,” Graves said in a statement.

Beyond the sarcasm, the move from Harris to use pro forma to take control of the floor risks backfiring on the hard-line conservative wing.

It is unclear whether Harris or the House Freedom Caucus could face repercussions for the move. Good is departing Congress at the end of the term.

One obvious risk for Harris is his powerful subcommittee chair position on the House Appropriations panel, overseeing agriculture, rural development and the Food and Drug Administration. Harris got that position in January 2023 after conservative hard-liners who held up former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) election had pushed for more Freedom Caucus representation on powerful committees. Harris’s office did not respond to a request for comment on potential repercussions.

When it comes to the bill itself, the move to table may not keep it from getting a vote this week.

Before Harris and Good made the move, leadership had already set up a different way to consider the same measure through the suspension of the rules. That bypasses the multistep discharge petition process to more quickly consider the legislation, requiring two-thirds support of the House for approval.

The conservative hardliners, though, are clearly hoping that GOP leaders opt to not take it up.

“We've given leadership, now, the opportunity to escape what they said they didn't like and didn't want, which was a discharge petition for the bill,” Good said. “The bill didn't come to the floor through the normal process. And so we've given leadership an exit round.”

“I hope they'll take the exit round, that they won't try to get back on the freeway to $200 billion that over-corrects the admitted inequities in the WEP,” Good said, referring to the Windfall Elimination Provision, the formula that can reduce benefits for workers who receive pensions that didn’t pay into social security.