The House of Representatives is a large body with diverse opinions. Without structure, nothing could get done. In order to both have debate and amendments while also not dragging processes on forever, legislation brought to the floor of the House of Representatives is accompanied by a rule.

That rule sets out the parameters for debate, timeframe for debate, and amendments to the underlying legislation. Legislation rarely goes to the floor of the House of Representatives without a rule. Killing the rule, which is voted on before the legislation, kills the underlying legislation.

Often, members of congress will vote in favor of the rule to get legislation to the floor of the House of Representatives, but then vote against the legislation itself. They enable the legislation to get to the floor, but are often promised that once the legislation gets to the floor, there will be enough votes from the other party to pass it that these members can vote no.

It is a con job. Members of Congress vote for the rule to ensure legislation gets to the floor. The votes are then lined up to pass it without those members’ votes. But for them, the legislation would have died. And now they can say with a straight face they opposed it even though, had they opposed the rule, the legislation would have died.

The House Republicans are going to do this with amnesty. They have loaded up a piece of legislation that is almost two thousand pages long. The legislation will spend a trillion dollars and will fund President Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty. There are most likely not enough Republican votes to pass it because it betrays Republican principles.

But [mc_name name=’Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B000589′ ] and [mc_name name=’Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’P000197′ ] have enough Democrats on board to pass it that it does not matter.

What does matter is the rule. Democrats will not support the rule. The minority party never does. The question becomes whether there are enough Republican votes for the rule. If your Republican congressman votes for the rule, that congressman is enabling passage of a continuing resolution that spends massive amounts of money and pays for President Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty.

Call your congressman today and tell him to oppose not just the continuing resolution, but the rule as well. Defeating the rule is key and far too many members of congress put party loyalty ahead of the nation when it comes to supporting these rules.