Unrepresentative House

The House of Representatives, under Republican control, instituted an “informal rule” sometime back that essentially makes bipartisan compromises in the House nearly impossible. The rule requires that before any bill can come up for a vote it must first have the support of a majority of Republicans. This effectively takes Democrats out of the equation altogether. It does not matter if a bill has the support of a clear majority of representatives in the House, it can still be derailed by a minority faction of Repubican lawmakers due to this GOP-instituted rule.
A perfect example of this came up just yesterday when House Republican leaders stalled a vote on reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act because of the objections of some southern state Republicans - mostly from Texas.

The House abruptly dropped plans Wednesday to vote on a renewal of the Voting Rights Act, a seminal law from the civil rights era, after criticism from Republican lawmakers from Texas.

Nevermind that the bill has the support of the White House and top legislative leaders from both parties, in fact this just once again demonstrates how weak this President is in getting any legislation through Congress even when his party controls all branches of the government.