Rep. Barbara Comstock, the only Republican member of Congress from Northern Virginia, voted for an amendment sponsored by Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Rob Bishop (R-Utah) to strip the rule from the package. The rule “diminishes the roles of the authorizing committees in the House, and will make it more difficult to pass appropriations bills in the new Congress,” Comstock’s spokesman, Jeff Marschner, said in a statement. However, when the rules package, including the Holman measure, came to the floor Tuesday, she voted for it, as did all but three Republicans. All the Democrats voted no. And they likely will. I'm not saying this is a good thing. But they dont' have a filibuster-proof majority and the time has come to pick battles. The Democrats lose nothing by fighting this. The Republicans lose unity. Which they're going to be doing a lot of.Several House Republicans tried to block revival of the Holman Rule in a closed-door meeting Monday evening.