Hearing the Falconer #7 ~ 15-March-2019 ~ Information on why we need the Motion to Recommit in the House

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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15-March-2019: Technical Report on the House Motion to Recommit
A Congressional report on the House Motion to Recommit
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A bad idea from Democrats - More information on the Motion to Recommit in the House

Yesterday I wrote about some Freshman Democrats in the House seeking to abolish or change the procedure called the Motion to Recommit (MTR). This would be a BAD idea. The current procedure on the MTR is a GOOD idea. Today I wanted to provide some more background information on the MTR.

The attached document is from the Congressional Research Service in January 2016. It is a little technical but some main points are:

"Due to its inclusion of policy language, the motion to recommit might also have political effects, such as allowing Members to go on record as supporting or opposing a specific policy and creating a comprehensive public record to emphasize the minority party’s differences from the platform of the majority."

"As described below, the motion to recommit underwent fundamental changes in 1909 with the stated purpose of giving the minority the right “to have a vote upon its position upon great public questions.” This seems to imply that the motion was intended to have not only procedural effects but also political ones, allowing Members to go on record as supporting or opposing a specific policy, an opportunity that may be important for demonstrating their policy preference to constituents that might not otherwise occur in the absence of the motion."

"A motion to recommit may combine several proposed amendments, providing the opportunity to package together a set of views as a way to create a comprehensive public record to emphasize the minority party’s differences from the platform of the majority."

On the whole the MTR was designed to give the minority party in the House a little more influence and to provide a way for the minority to get member's views on the record. These are good independent, moderate, centrist goals. Democrats should leave the MTR alone.

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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Indpendent Thinkers

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison