Republicans are ready to reform the congressional schedule and rework some House rules. GOP already eyeing House calendar

Just days before the midterm elections, House Republicans are already discussing ways to tweak the House schedule, a sign that they’re confident of Tuesday’s outcome and are ready to reform a congressional schedule that hasn’t changed in 40 years.

Republicans are considering a series of changes, including a three weeks on, one week off schedule through the year, according to lawmakers and aides. This would allow members of Congress to avoid dashing in and out of Washington for the typical Tuesday through Thursday schedule. There’s also talk about slashing committee budgets, restructuring them and reworking House rules.


Other elements of schedule change that have been floated include having a chunk of time each day reserved for votes. For example, votes might be set for after 3 p.m., leaving the morning open for unfettered hearings and bill markups.

While all of these changes may sound like congressional procedural minutiae, Republicans insist that it’s about changing the culture of a chamber that has a reputation for working only three days a week.

The day-to-day schedule, for example, would allow the House to hold hearings with “tier-one witnesses,” as one GOP lawmaker put it, without lawmakers having to leave for votes. Often times, hearings that should wrap up in four hours last as many as 12 hours, as proceedings often get interrupted by a series of votes.

Aides emphasized that no decision has been made and several options are on the table, but talks are under way.

Such promises of reform, of course, are nothing new for a party that hopes to assume power. Democrats promised to work five days a week after taking a big majority in 2006 and widening that margin in 2008, but they lapsed back into a more leisurely routine after not too long.

“The modern House calendar hasn't changed in 40 years,” one House aide told POLITICO. “It reflects the priorities of a Democrat-controlled Congress: overlegislating and overspending. A new Republican Congress will focus on cutting spending and putting a morbidly obese federal government on a big diet, and if altering the schedule aids that goal, it’s a possibility.”

All of these changes are likely to take some time. House aides point to spending cuts and repealing the Democrats’ health care bill as top billing in a new Congress. There will be lengthy fights over appropriations bills, aides say — ranging from cutting funding, to preventing the flow of dollars to departments that carry out health care reform.

Republicans are avoiding setting the stage for a 100-day schedule — similar to the Contract With America — largely because they believe the ideas they laid out in the Pledge to America will take more time.