A bipartisan Congressional group co-founded by Vermont’s lone Congressman Peter Welch that says its members are dedicated to “getting things done” is giving a big headache to Nancy Pelosi. For now these Democrats are opposing her bid to become Speaker of the House in the next session when the new Democratic majority takes control.

In a statement to thehill.com, nine Democratic Problem Solver Caucus members vowed to withhold their votes for Pelosi as Speaker unless she agrees to their rule changes. The rule change dispute, according to thehill.com, involves: [A] package of 10 proposals designed to empower individual members and grease the skids for passage of popular bipartisan bills that, in recent years, have frequently been ignored.

[According to Problem Solver Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-NY) press release this will give fast-track priority consideration to bipartisan legislation and guarantees markups on bipartisan legislation from every Member of Congress].

Central to their reforms is a proposal requiring a supermajority vote — three-fifths of the House — to pass any legislation brought to the floor under a closed rule, and another ensuring fast-track consideration of any bill co-sponsored by at least two-thirds of the chamber.

It also proposes changes designed to prevent a small group of hard-liners from using threats to “vacate the chair” as a bludgeon to keep certain legislation off the floor, as the far-right Freedom Caucus has done in recent years.

The rule changes, ironically enough, appear to make it more difficult for the new Democratic majority to actually pass legislation by requiring more than a majority of votes on specific bills.

The Democrats who signed onto the statement are Reps. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Jim Costa (Calif.), Tom O’Halleran (Ariz.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.), Tom Suozzi (N.Y.), Daniel Lipinski (Ill.), Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), Vicente González (Texas) and Darren Soto (Fla.). Vermont Rep. Peter Welch did not sign on to this statement but has declared he is withholding his support for Pelosi.

U.S. Representative elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York City’s 14^th district tweeted her dismay over the problem the “Problem Solvers” are creating.

Are the Problem Solvers Caucus just a Blue Dog cover band?  The Washington Post noted that the group actually solves few problems, along with a major Democratic criticism of them: Democrats in particular say that by supporting the group, members of their own party have given political cover to lawmakers with conservative voting records without forcing those same lawmakers to take concrete action to stall Republican legislation on health care or taxes. The caucus’s Republican members have on average voted in line with the White House’s position 93 percent of the time, according to calculations based on FiveThirtyEight’s vote tracker, with at least nine Republicans in the group doing so more than 95 percent of the time.

None of today’s accounts of the Problem Solvers’ threatened stalemate include any specific comment from  Rep. Welch — a Problem Solver Caucus co-founder. Welch, who voted for Pelosi in the past, has withheld any declaration of support of current minority leader Pelosi for Speaker this time. Recently Welch, who will now serve in a Democratic  House majority for the first time in eight years, said to SevenDays.com: “too much power has landed in the speaker’s office,” and he expressed a desire to decentralize power and responsibility to committees. After talking generally about  House “rule changes” quite a bit during the campaign he sure is staying in the shadows now that the caucus he’s a big part of  makes their big play.

According to the report from thehill.com, after meeting with the Problem Caucus last week Pelosi agreed to some of the group’s desired changes.

But the Democrats say they have yet to receive any specific commitments, calling the situation a “stalemate.” They had initially requested a response by last Friday but agreed to give the California Democrat a few more days.

“While we appreciate Leader Pelosi’s broad commitment to our effort, we have yet to receive specific commitments to our proposed rules changes that would help ‘Break the Gridlock’ and allow for true bipartisan governing in this new era of divided government,” the Democrats said in a statement provided to The Hill.

Pelosi has faced down earlier opposition to her return to Speaker from her fellow Democrats “with honey not vinegar.” Maybe that’ll be the problem solver with this House caucus that declares it is dedicated not to obstruction but to (ahem) getting things done.

But somehow I suspect that the people back home who voted in the Blue Wave are going to feel swamped if Rep. Pelosi doesn’t offer more than a sand castle easily destroyed by beach-blanket bullies stomping through it. Pelosi was re-elected to the House to return Democrats to effective power, not to give that power away.