House Conservatives: Majority of Majority Should Apply 'Universally'

House conservatives are complaining that House Speaker Paul Ryan is following his predecessor John Boehner's method of relying on Democrats to help pass bills, and are pushing for stronger use of the "majority of majority" rule to cover all Republican-backed legislation.

"The majority should mean something," Arizona GOP Rep. Matt Salmon, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus that forced Boehner to resign last year, told The Hill.

"If the speaker pursues the John Boehner way of passing bills, he may follow Boehner in other ways as well. I think Paul is better than that."

Last year, when the Freedom Caucus reached a deal with Ryan for the speaker's seat, it made an agreement that Paul would only bring immigration bills forward if they were backed by the majority of House Republicans.

But now, they say that requiring that for only immigration bills is too limiting, and should reach for all bills.

The method, known for years as the "Hastert Rule" for former Speaker Dennis Hastert, should apply "universally," said Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Scott Perry, another Freedom Caucus member.

"We're the majority party for a reason, and if we're going to rely on the other side, who is philosophically opposed to most of the things our voters sent us here to do, I'm not sure what the point is," Perry told a conservatives' party Wednesday. "It seems like an easy answer."

While Ryan was able to get bipartisan government and tax legislation passed last December by 60 percent of the 246 House Republicans, he is having difficulty gaining party support on other priorities, including a spending bill this spring, and he may start to need Democratic votes to push legislation through.

Ryan on Wednesday would not comment directly on whether he would bring a debt relief bill for Puerto Rico to the floor without majority support, saying instead he believes there will be "large bipartisan support" on the bill.

But Democratic leaders say the Republicans haven't moved a bill through committee because they don't want to violate the Hastert rule.

"The fact of the matter is, again, they cannot get consensus in their party," Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters recently. "And notwithstanding the fact that Paul Ryan has said they were going to get it done by March 31, now May 1, they seem to be at risk of not doing it at all."

Related Stories:

• Orrin Hatch Slams House's Puerto Rico Bailout Bill
• Paul Ryan: 'We Don't Have' Votes to Pass a Budget