Jordain Carney and Meredith Lee Hill at Politico:

Republicans will make it harder to remove the speaker in the 119th Congress under a rules package unveiled Wednesday. The proposed rules package would require nine GOP members to back making a motion to vacate to trigger a vote on ousting the speaker. That’s an increase from the current rule, which allows any single GOP member to force a vote. The deal to increase the threshold was negotiated in November by members of the House Freedom Caucus and the small business-oriented Main Street Caucus last year — an agreement that was first reported by POLITICO. Even after a vote is triggered, it still requires the support of a majority of the House in order for a speaker to be removed.

The release of the rules package, which includes proposed changes to the House’s general order of operations, comes ahead of Friday’s start to the new Congress. Republicans will need to formally adopt the package on the House floor, which they can’t do until they elect a speaker. In addition to the change to the motion to vacate, the rules package also tweaks the names of two House committees, allows committees to adopt rules on electronic voting, and tees up votes on 12 GOP bills including legislation related to immigration, voter ID and transgender student athletes. Inclusion of one of those bills, related to the International Criminal Court, is already drawing pushback from some members of the House GOP’s right flank.