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Last week after the House of Representatives voted on who would be the Speaker, the vote that followed was on a new set of rules that dictate how the institution will be run over the next two years. Written solely by Republicans, these rules give us insight into their priorities for the upcoming 119th Congress.

While most rules that lay out how the U.S. House of Representatives conducts business every two years stay the same (especially if the majority party doesn’t change), the start of a new Congress represents an opportunity for the majority to make tweaks and edits based on their priorities.

To give you an example, the last time House Democrats were in the majority in the 117th Congress (four years ago), we created or continued several select committees including the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis of which I had the pleasure to serve on. We also made changes to prioritize ethics and a stronger code of conduct from representatives, made much needed technological upgrades to ensure the institution ran more efficiently, and so much more. You can read about it here.

So as Republicans begin another two years in the majority, what changes did they make?

As a reminder, House Republicans flipped control of the House two years ago, and with their majority came historic unproductivity and dysfunction. They focused on hyper-partisan bills, leaving House Democrats out of the process, ensuring we were unable to amend any bills. But when it came to actual governance and/or keeping the government open, House Republicans needed our help. And of course, we did our jobs. Here are examples:

January 2024: Johnson relied on Democrats to avert a government shutdown after right-wing Republicans tried to renege on a deal from 2023

February 2024: Johnson relied on Democrats to avoid a partial government shutdown

April 2024: Johnson relied on Democrats to vote for foreign aid for our allies

May 2024: Democrats kill a motion by Marjorie Taylor Greene to remove Johnson as Speaker of the House

December 2024: Elon Musk blows up bipartisan negotiations and Johnson relies on Democrats to vote for a temporary government funding bill to avoid a shutdown

Instead of recognizing that the only way to really solve issues is to work in a bipartisan manner, Speaker Johnson and Republicans have further doubled down on their extreme partisanship. This is especially true because this Congress, Republicans have an even slimmer majority (just two votes!). 

As part of their rules package, they prioritized 12 partisan bills, most of which are already law but are meant to evoke the same visceral anger we’ve seen around topics such as immigration, sexuality, and more.

Nowhere in their priority list is legislation that will make your life easier or lower the high cost of living. Something they told you they were going to do.

I’m eager as they are to ensuring we reform our outdated and byzantine immigration system. In fact, immigration reform has been one of my top priorities since I first came to Congress, and in 2023, my Republican colleague Maria Salazar and I introduced our bill, the Dignity Act of 2023 as a common-sense solution to our border and beyond. It was the first bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced in the House in a decade. Since then, our bill has gained support and endorsements from both sides of the political aisle.

But I can tell you that not only are the immigration bills they’ve prioritized bad bills, but they don’t address the challenges and opportunities we face as a nation. 

I know that you sent me to Congress to work on real solutions to help our community and country. You have my commitment to evaluate every bill they bring forward to make sure it offers real solutions and not just talking points intended to fuel further division in our country. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. The details they’ve shared so far demonstrate that instead of leaning into solutions that make your life better, they’re leaning in to talking points that they hope will make you angrier. That may work on political campaigns, social media and cable TV, but that approach won’t make us safer or better.