{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://messer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-republicans-pass-rep-messer-s-proposal-to-change-house-gop-rules", "House Republicans Pass Rep. Messers Proposal to Change House GOP Rules", "2016-11-16", "2016", "2016-11", "Republican", "House", "IN", "Luke Messer", "M001189", "messer.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON (Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016) \u2014 Today Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed Rep. Luke Messer\u2019s (IN-06) proposal to change House GOP rules, making the conference more responsive to its rank-and-file members.\nMesser\u2019s rule will require committee chairs to hold a hearing on a measure within 30 legislative days if it is cosponsored by a majority of the Republican Conference and the cosponsors include one third of the Republican committee members.\n\u201cIf one thing was clear from the recent election, it\u2019s that the people are still in control of their government,\u201d Messer said. \u201cCongress must be directly responsive to the people it serves. One of the best ways to do that is to remove the barriers that prevent good ideas from succeeding. We can empower the American people by empowering their representatives in Congress to drive results.\u201d\nMesser\u2019s rule ensures that popular legislative proposals have a guaranteed path forward in the legislative process to become law. Previously, a committee chair or other powerful member could kill a proposal regardless of how much support it had from conference members \u2013 even if it was supported by over half of the conference.\n\u201cWhen Americans contact their representatives about an issue, they wonder if it makes a difference. This new rule will make sure it does,\u201d Messer said. \u201cFor the first time, the American people will be able to directly influence whether a policy idea moves forward by picking up the phone and urging their representatives\u2019 support.\u201d\nMesser also authored a rule amendment which was adopted by the House Republicans today to improve conference culture by preventing personal attacks during debate, which impedes constructive policy discussion.\nMesser\u2019s rule changes will now be part of the policies that govern the House Republican Conference for the 115th Congress.\nMesser has been advocating for changes to House Republican Conference rules for more than a year. This September, he sent a letter with Reps. Rodney Davis (IL-13) and Morgan Griffith (VA-9) to all House Republicans urging several rules changes to empower members and help them deliver for the American people.\nMesser is a member of House Republican Leadership, recently reelected to serve as Chair of the Republican Policy Committee in the 115th Congress.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://messer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-republicans-pass-rep-messer-s-proposal-to-change-house-gop-rules"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9256931953132153, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}