With the speakership vote settled in the House of Representatives, new Members were finally sworn in, the Rules of the House were adopted, and committee chairs were elected. While these seem like mundane and procedural activities, the decisions made have an important impact on how legislation is written and considered in the House for the next two years.  

Members
There are 77 new Members of Congress this session - 43 Republicans and 34 Democrats. With 222 total members, the Republicans have a ten-seat majority over the Democrats, who hold 212 seats. There is one vacancy due to the recent death Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA).

In the House, 218 is the magic number for majority vote, which means the Republican leadership will have a difficult time holding its caucus together on votes when they can only spare four votes.  This is the same margin the Democrats held in the last Congress.

Rules
The Rules of the House are enshrined in legislation passed by the chamber at the beginning of each Congress. The rules govern how Congress conducts itself for the next two years, including how legislation is written and considered on the floor, how committee meetings will be held, what the ethics rules are for members and staff, and how the leadership will be determined. In addition to the rules included in the written package, a few “handshake” deals were made as part of the speakership vote that fall into the rules category.
Of particular interest to NAICU are the rules related to how legislation will be considered and how the federal budget will be treated:

• Cap spending at FY 2022 levels: This rule is one of the handshake deals signifying that Republicans intend to reign in government spending. Whether they can achieve this goal will be determined early this year as the budget process starts. Even Republican appropriators are wary of this move, which would immediately cut $130 billion from the just-passed FY 2023 funding bill. 
• Switch from PAYGO to CUTGO: Under Democratic rules, the House used Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rules to ensure that any increase in mandatory spending was offset by an equivalent cut or tax increase to balance the entitlement spending. Republicans are reinstating their version of offsetting, called “CUTGO,” which requires any increase in mandatory spending over a 5- or 10-year window to be offset with mandatory cuts, not tax increases, within the window. This would have an impact on any legislation changing how student loans function because student loans are the only student aid program with mandatory funding. 
• Limit bills to a single issue: This rule is intended to focus legislation by committee and avoid bills filled with non-germane provisions and avoid omnibus spending packages.
• Make it harder to increase the debt ceiling: The rules eliminate the “Gephardt Rule,” which allowed the House to send the Senate a debt ceiling increase on the budget resolution rather than having a separate vote on raising the debt ceiling. The Republican Caucus also wants any increase in the debt ceiling to be paired with equivalent spending cuts. Raising the debt ceiling is expected to be a hot topic this summer when the current debt limit is set to expire. 
• Give members time to read bills: Republicans are keeping the Democratic rule of requiring bills be released at least 72 hours before a vote to ensure members have ample time to read legislation. This rule is often waived by the Rules Committee, but in a concession for speakership votes, three of the nine seats on the Rules Committee have been promised to Freedom Caucus members to help maintain discipline.Committee Chairs

Committee chairs were elected by the House Steering Committee and approved by the Republican Caucus this week. Committee membership will continue to shake out over the next few weeks as final assignments are made for freshmen.

Appropriations: The leadership seats will flip from last year, making Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) Chair of the committee and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) Ranking Member. While Rep. Granger will be asked by the leadership to help “reign in spending,” she has already rebuffed the notion of drastic cuts to FY 2022 spending levels, especially for defense spending, noting in her press release, “it’s our responsibility to reduce spending where we can and ensure that we prioritize resources on national security.” What that means is defense could get a bigger piece of the funding pie, and nondefense programs, like student aid, will have to fight harder for increases. Reps. Granger and DeLauro have worked together for many years, represent strong bipartisan support for the federal student aid programs, and have connections to their local private colleges.

Budget: Last year’s Ranking Member on the House Budget Committee, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) took the top post at Ways and Means (see below), leaving an open chair. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) won a three-way race to chair the committee. Rep. Arrington’s priorities reflect the budget plans for the Republican Caucus to cut overall spending by reinstating spending caps at the FY 2022 levels, limiting growth in spending to 2% per year, and shrinking entitlement programs to more manageable levels. Again, the budget battles are expected to start early this year, starting with a budget resolution that could shrink the nondefense portion of government spending and make changes to the student loan programs to cut entitlement spending.

Education and the Workforce: Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who has served as chair or ranking member of the committee since 2017, and was selected over her challenger, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), received a waiver to serve an additional term beyond the three-term limit for House Republicans. Rep. Foxx has vowed to conduct rigorous oversight of the Biden Administration’s stewardship of the Department of Education and has been busy writing a Higher Education Act reauthorization proposal.

Ways and Means: Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) was selected to become chair, defeating Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Adrian Smith (R-NE) for the top spot on the committee with jurisdiction over tax policy, trade, social security, welfare and health care.  Rep. Smith has been a champion of IRC Sec. 127, employer-provided education and student loan repayment assistance, and has taken the lead on bipartisan bills to more than double the annual benefit amount from $5,250 to $12,000.

Veterans Affairs: The chairs will switch places from the 117^th Congress, making Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) Chairman and Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) Ranking Member. The committee and its leaders have a bipartisan approach to supporting our nation’s veterans, which is expected to continue in the 118^th Congress. The higher education community has worked closely with both sides of the aisle on GI Bill benefit issues that ensure student veterans have the support they need for the education they are pursuing.
The Senate is expected to make its final Committee decisions later this month.