Florida’s Webster Running for U.S. House Speaker

Representative Daniel Webster (Dist. 10), who once served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives — has thrown his hat into the ring to replace John Boehner.

Webster discussed a detailed with Breitbart.com

“Really, right now, the default of every legislative body I’ve been to—and I’ve been to a lot of them—is a power-based system as opposed to principle-based. That works too, you can do it that way where a few people at the top of the pyramid make all of the decisions. We’d rather see a flattened down pyramid of power and spread out the base so every member has an opportunity to be successful.”

Webster served as part of the first insurgency against Boehner and nearly dragged the vote to a second ballot. He, along with another Florida Congressman — Ted Yoho (Dist. 3) — played an important role in forcing Boehner to hold a vote in January.

Webster Rating

It’s not the first time Webster has tried to create massive change within a legislative body. He actively helped transform Florida’s House from power-based to principled patterns.

“I changed that system in Florida when I was the Speaker of the House—I was the Minority Leader, I saw for 16 years the way a power system works,” Webster said.

Webster clearly sees the tactics used to push bills through. Instead of working on important issues ahead of time, the power players wait until the last minute to box everyone into a last-second vote. Members hold their noses and pass flawed bills.

He also doesn’t want to see “Continuing Resolutions” (CR) where Congress basically extends a bill for a period of time. Many have called that process “kicking the can down the road.”

“You’re going to work hard — they do work hard now, but they’re going to have to work harder up front. They’re going to have to produce bills. And as you’re producing them, you’re going to tell the Senate that there’s not going to be any CR — there’s not going to be any CRs,” Webster said. “That’s our position, get ready to negotiate with conferees. Keep pushing and pushing, as the bills come out get ready to go. That’s the Appropriations process — and I think that the earlier you do it, the more opportunity you have to come up with a conference-able bill.”

Congress also needs to stop creating rules for every bill — another tactic used to ensure passage of shady dealings.

“And then thirdly, you begin with the committees meeting and taking up member bills using the current rules as opposed to meeting and writing rules, passing a rule for one bill, voting on the rule for one bill then taking up the bill and debating that, maybe amendments maybe not depending on how controversial it is and then finally we vote on whatever amendments there are plus the bill,” Webster said.