Pelosi’s move has set up a divisive mood on the first day of the 111th Congress, which Republicans say runs counter to the tone set by President-elect Obama.

Republican leaders intend to fight the rules changes, which would curtail their ability to delay legislation by forcing Democrats to take politically difficult votes.

“This is not the kind of openness and transparency that President-elect Obama promised,” the GOP leaders wrote Monday in a letter to Pelosi.

Republican leadership aides say the changes will make it easier for the Speaker to run the House and protect vulnerable House Democrats.

But Democratic leadership sources dispute the GOP characterizations, noting that Republicans will still have an opportunity to offer an amendment to bills on the floor, though they won’t have the ability to invoke an arcane rule that would in effect kill the entire underlying measure.

Democrats say GOP assertions that Republicans would not be able to offer a “motion to recommit” are false. They say they are removing the “Catch-22” that Republicans have exploited to force embarrassing votes on issues such as gun control and illegal immigration.

The rules package also calls for the end of six-year term limits for committee chairmen. This move is not popular with younger members, but panel chairmen have been pressing for the change since Democratic leaders surprisingly kept the six-year limits intact in their rules package for the 110th Congress.

The change means that House chairmen could be in their posts until they retire or die.

The six-year limit was initially adopted after House Republicans took control of the lower chamber in 1995. That ended the seniority-based system that Democrats had embraced for decades.

Democratic aides argue, however, that term limits under Republican rule meant that the committee member who raises the most money would be rewarded with a chairmanship.

However, one of the most contentious issues included in the rules package is a revision to the way Republicans may amend a bill before final passage. The passed rules package allows Democrats to remove the GOP’s ability to offer a “motion to recommit” a bill “promptly,” which in effect kills the underlying legislation.

Democrats argue that Republicans will still have the opportunity to offer amendments to legislation in the final stages, i.e. “forthwith” - they just won’t be able to use that amendment for political gimmicks, according to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
“Members have said on the other side, they want to be able to offer an alternative. Nothing in this proposal diminishes their ability to offer an alternative. They are fully able to offer an alternative as an amendment. What they are losing is a legislative Ponzi scheme,” Frank argued.

(g) Instructions in the Motion to Recommit- In clause 2(b) of rule XIX--

(1) designate the existing sentence as subparagraph (1);

(2) in subparagraph (1) (as so designated)--

(A) strike ‘if’; and

(B) strike ‘includes instructions, it’; and

(3) add the following new subparagraph at the end:

‘(2) A motion to recommit a bill or joint resolution may include instructions only in the form of a direction to report an amendment or amendments back to the House forthwith.’.