As minority leader, Mr. Boehner, of Ohio, is in line to become speaker if his party captures a House majority, and in his speech Thursday, he set out specific ways he would overhaul the legislative process, including upending the appropriations system to giving rank-and-file members more power and requiring that the enactment of any new program be accompanied by at least an equivalent cutback in another program…

Mr. Boehner proposed a series of largely procedural measures that he said would make government both more responsive and more transparent. Many of his recommendations could be done through changes in House rules and procedure if he could win backing of a majority and overcome resistance from senior lawmakers who could see their influence diminished under the changes.

He called for rewriting the budget act, ceasing the practice of cobbling together enormous spending bills that cover multiple agencies, ending leadership-driven legislation that freezes out the vast majority of members and instituting a cut-as-you-go requirement in which any member offering a new program must “terminate or reduce spending on an existing government program of equal or greater size — in the very same bill.”