House Rules Committee Democratic Staff Releases New Report: “How Donald Trump Stole Congress: The Transformation of the People’s House into a Rubber Stamp for the President—Shutting Down Debate, Silencing Members, and Serving the Billionaire Class”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, the House Rules Committee Democratic Staff released a new end-of-year report detailing how Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans have systematically dismantled deliberation in the People’s House—rigging the rules to silence Members, block amendments, and turn Congress into a rubber stamp for President Trump and the billionaire class. 

The report, entitled How Donald Trump Stole Congress, reflects months of research by House Rules Committee Democrats and underscores the stark contrast between Republican efforts to suppress deliberation and Democrats’ push to restore transparency, accountability, and regular order.

“Speaker Mike Johnson promised openness this Congress, and instead he's delivered a total lockdown. Debate is non-existent, amendments are blocked, and members are silenced. Under this Republican majority, the House of Representatives has become a place where trivial ideas are debated passionately, and important ones not at all. The data in this report backs that up,” said House Rules Committee Ranking Member James P. McGovern. “Republicans are terrified of debate because that would expose who they work for. Thanks to them, Congress has essentially become a rubber stamp for billionaires, CEOs, and special interests.”

The report finds that despite Speaker Johnson’s promises to restore regular order and open debate, House Republicans have instead presided over one of the most closed and restrictive Congresses in American history. Under Johnson’s leadership, Rules Committee Republicans have issued 168 closed rules, with more than 70 percent of all rules shutting down debate entirely. In the first year of the 119th Congress alone, over 80 percent of measures were considered under closed rules, denying Members of both parties the ability to offer amendments that would improve legislation.

The report also documents how Republican leadership has blocked more than 6,000 amendments during Johnson’s speakership, rejecting more than seven out of every ten amendment ideas submitted to the Rules Committee—including most Republican amendments and nearly two-thirds of bipartisan proposals—silencing the voices of millions of Americans.

Rather than operating as an independent branch of government, the report finds that House Republicans have weaponized the Rules Committee to shield President Trump from oversight and advance a narrow agenda that serves wealthy donors and corporate interests while refusing to debate solutions to rising grocery prices, exploding healthcare costs, and an affordability crisis squeezing working families across the country.

The report warns that these tactics mirror increasingly authoritarian models of governance, where legislatures exist in name only and serve to consolidate power rather than represent the public. Even President Trump’s allies have compared today’s House of Representatives to the Russian Duma—a body designed to ratify power and decisions, not debate them.

“Congress is supposed to be the first branch of government,” McGovern continued. “Instead, the Speaker has surrendered it to the White House. That’s not democracy. It’s authoritarianism. Americans deserve a Congress that debates big ideas out in the open and delivers for them. Democrats are fighting to restore that—and will not back down.”

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