Making Bipartisanship an Option Again
It’s no secret that Congress isn’t functioning as the founders envisioned, one where there is a constant building and reshaping of coalitions to create the nation’s laws. Instead of fostering deliberation, the modern House of Representatives has become a place where power is monopolized in the majority party leadership.
Even when legislation attracts broad bipartisan support, it is often blocked from reaching the House floor for a vote. Bills are quickly stopped in committee, not for lack of bipartisan coalitions, but because of the lack of party leadership approval. Committee chairs use their influence to convince party members not to add amendments to bills and to vote against any offer by adding provisions favorable for each majority party member. We now have a system where cross-party cooperation is discouraged and procedural gatekeeping reigns supreme. If Congress is to function as the founders envisioned, it needs to reform the procedure that prevents bipartisan legislation from reaching the House floor for a vote.
Under the current House rules, the majority party leadership controls most of the agenda and decides if or whether a bill will be considered for a vote. The discharge petition was a tool to combat this kind of concentration of power, allowing rank-and-file members to force a bill out of committee if it was being blocked there.
In practice, however, the tool has become nearly unusable. House Rule XV requires a bill to sit in committee for 30 legislative days before a discharge petition can even begin, which under current House schedules generally means waiting two to three calendar months. Securing the 218 required signatures for the discharge petition is almost impossible with the majority party leadership going out of their way to prevent members from signing, often by offering them some kind of change in some other bill that they favor. Moreover, members who initiate the discharge petition process risk retaliation from their own party leadership. As a result of these barriers, only 19 discharge petitions have resulted in bills being passed in the House since the rule was first adopted nearly 100 years ago.
It is well past time for the House to reform the discharge petition process and empower bipartisan legislating. The waiting period should be shortened from 30 legislative days to 14, after which proponents could more expeditiously seek the required number of signatures to force a bill out of committee for a vote. If a discharge petition secures 80 Democrats and 80 Republican signatures, the bill should automatically receive a scheduled privileged floor vote within a fixed timeframe. This allows any bill that clearly has bipartisan support to be considered in an efficient manner and ensures that the process isn’t weaponized by the majority party to block bipartisan bills.
Under a reformed process, committee chairs would have to be more open to legislative amendments. If a member can realistically threaten a discharge petition, committees will be more inclined to consider amendments properly to not be cut out of the process. Compare a reformed process to today where the majority party agrees to backdoor changes to bills beforehand and then votes down any amendments offered in committee.
Reforming the discharge petition would restore the necessary balance in the House and facilitate actual bipartisan legislation. When a bill gathers 80 Democratic and 80 Republican signatures for a petition, that level of cross-party backing signals a bipartisan coalition that deserves consideration by the full chamber. Shortening the waiting period and guaranteeing a floor vote in such cases would limit the leadership’s ability to quickly block legislation that otherwise enjoys broad support. It would revive the principle that bipartisan majorities, just like the partisan ones, should be able to act and get their legislation to the House floor.
The House was designed to be a deliberative body where debate and coalition-building shape and lead the lawmaking process. Strengthening the discharge petition would create a clearer path for bipartisan legislation to advance. By empowering members on both sides of the aisle, this reform would restore accountability to the legislative process and be a meaningful step to move the House closer to its constitutional purpose while also helping to rebuild public confidence in the ability of Congress to govern efficiently.
Luka Jacobi-Krohn is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania studying political science in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a Domestic Policy Programs intern at Penn Washington.
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