CNN
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House Republicans announced an agreement Wednesday evening to raise the threshold for invoking a motion to leave the President’s chair, in exchange for amendment changes.

The motion to overturn the rule currently only allows one member of Congress to call for a vote of no confidence against the speaker. The new agreement raises this threshold to nine.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus and the government-focused GOP Main Street Caucus were in talks – with Speaker Mike Johnson – on changes to the rescission motion, according to three Republicans involved in the discussions. A change in the party’s internal rules would defuse the procedural weapon used to remove Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, from power. In exchange, GOP lawmakers would not push for changes that would punish members who voted against the rule.

If Johnson can raise the threshold, it would eliminate a key problem for him in the next Congress, where CNN projected Wednesday that Republicans would have a majority in the House. The GOP conference is expected to approve the deal Thursday.

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said the new agreement would “eliminate controversial issues” to “respect” President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

“We know who our designated speaker is at this time, and we have been able to work within the conference to eliminate controversial issues that might have divided us and move forward together to implement the president’s agenda,” Harris said . “This is it. This is what the American people expect of us, and the first steps have been taken today, very concrete steps.”

South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson, a member of the Main Street group, said the deal would remove amendments “that probably would have divided this conference.”

“We had the opportunity to set the nullification motion higher than number one, this nullification motion will be set at nine in exchange for eliminating some amendments that likely would have divided this conference. Andy did a good job explaining to Main Street leaders why these amendments would have divided the Republican conference,” Johnson said.

The motion to quash is a rarely used procedural tool – and McCarthy is the only speaker to have been ousted thanks to the adoption of a resolution to remove them. But threats related to its use can be a powerful way to pressure a speaker.

To win over critics and secure the president’s gavel last year, McCarthy and his allies made a series of concessions to the conservativeswhich included restoring the ability of any member to move a motion to quash. House Republicans removed McCarthy as speaker in October 2023 and, after three weeks of infighting, elected Johnson as conference leader.