The Hastert Rule Was Never Really a Rule

The rule named for Dennis Hastert, the former Republican Speaker of the House, was broken more often by Hastert himself than by almost anyone else.

The idea was simple. The Speaker controls which bills get a vote on the House floor, and under the Hastert Rule, a bill would not get a vote unless most members of the Speaker's own party supported it.

That is stricter than it sounds. A bill could have enough total votes to pass, with help from the other party, and still never reach the floor if most of the majority party opposed it.

The logic was job protection. A Speaker keeps the post only with the support of fellow party members, so advancing bills they dislike risks a revolt. Before Hastert, Speakers weighed that concern informally but did not treat it as a rule.

Earlier leaders regularly set the idea aside when circumstances required it. Democrat Tip O'Neill, who was Speaker in the 1970s and 1980s, had to do so often because his caucus included many conservative Southern Democrats who frequently disagreed with the rest of the party.

Hastert made the practice explicit, and then ignored it when convenient. He once pulled a bill to create a Director of National Intelligence because most House Republicans opposed it, a move that drew criticism for spinelessness. The bill later passed after changes to satisfy two unhappy committee chairmen.

A 2012 calculation by the New York Times counted 36 breaks over 22 years, including 12 times by Hastert himself. Years after leaving office, Hastert suggested there had never really been a rule at all. The result was a guideline that encouraged party-line lawmaking, but did not bind even the man whose name it bears.