House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could lose the votes of nine Democratic members if she doesn’t back three proposals aimed at breaking gridlock, according to reports on Monday morning.
The House Problem Solvers Caucus is a bipartisan group of lawmakers with a mission of finding practical solutions to issues in a time of great political division.
Pelosi is likely to become the next speaker — which will soon put their proposals in her hands.
Pelosi is expected to meet with the group this week to discuss the proposal, among other issues. Democratic members released a statement Monday informing the minority leader that they would withhold their votes from her if she doesn’t back their gridlock proposals.
“In this era of divided government, we hope Leader Pelosi will join us in taking these three concrete steps for change to help break the gridlock and pass meaningful legislation to fix health care, immigration, and infrastructure,” the Democrats said in a statement obtained by The Hill.
Related: Senate Democrats Release Letter Opposing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker
The Democrats argued that the three proposals would make it easier to pass popular bipartisan bills. They want bills that get 290 co-sponsors to be debated and to get a timely floor vote.
Their second proposal would require that any amendment with at least 20 co-sponsors from both parties get a debate and a vote.
The last proposal would allow members to propose at least one bill that the committees on which they serve would have to debate.
Pelosi has been the assumed next speaker, given her current role as minority leader and her past experience. But she has been facing opposition from the more progressive wing of the party who want to replace the old guard with fresh people and ideas.
On Wednesday, she will face a closed-door vote to see whether she will be the party’s nominee for speaker.
The midterm election results opened the door for her to become speaker again when the Dems took control of the House.
The results were bittersweet for both sides.
Republicans were able to win enough elections to hold onto their Senate majority — while the Democrats picked up enough seats to take control of the House.
Related: McConnell Hopes for Bipartisanship After Losing House
Pelosi responded to the election results the day after by saying she hopes to find areas that lawmakers can work together on — and on a bipartisan basis. Infrastructure and criminal justice reform are two areas in which that might actually happen.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressed similar hopes of bipartisanship the next day as well.
The Democrats pushing for the rule changes are Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.), Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), Vicente González (D-Texas) and Darren Soto (D-Fla.).
For more on the 2018 midterms, check out this video:
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