Democratic leaders plan how to navigate slim House majority:

House Whip Jim Clyburn says there will be “significant changes” in how leadership conducts business in the new year.  https://thedispatch.com/p/democrats-congress-pelosi-ocasio-cortez

Michigan Rep. Dan Kildee, a chief deputy whip for the Democratic Caucus, acknowledged the numbers “could constrain us a bit” and said there will be more of a focus on including members in the drafting process early on to make sure varying perspectives are addressed.

At least in the beginning, Democrats could prioritize uncontroversial, bipartisan measures—House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters recently he is urging committee chairs to work across the aisle to advance legislation that has broad support in the new Congress.

But top Democrats are also eyeing procedural moves to keep the slim majority unified more easily—further tightening Speaker Pelosi’s grip on the legislative process. The party is considering a House rules change to roll back or reform the motion to recommit.

Motions to recommit are the minority’s last chance to amend a bill before final passage. The MTR, in today’s extraordinarily closed House, is effectively the only opportunity for all members to debate & vote on amendments that haven’t been approved by the Rules Committee first.

But instead of using this tool for good-faith legislating, the minority party often uses it to highlight divisions in the majority and to force vulnerable members to take tough political votes. Both parties have been guilty of this tactic.

Majority leadership always urges their members to ignore the game and simply vote against the motion to recommit at all times. These votes almost always fail on party lines.

In the most recent session, though, Republicans successfully peeled off enough Democrats from red districts to advance several motions to recommit. With a slimmer Democratic majority, the potential for successful MTRs is even greater.

Democrats say they haven’t made up their minds on how exactly they’ll address the tool in the upcoming rules package—whether to impose new restrictions or get rid of it altogether. Either way, the move will serve to strengthen House leadership’s hand even further.

Here’s what @joshHuder had to say about it:

More here: https://thedispatch.com/p/democrats-congress-pelosi-ocasio-cortez