It’s not just a dispute over process holding things up. Because of the pandemic, every vote takes about 45 minutes or longer, so a few additional roll-call votes can drag out each day’s floor time by hours - often late into the night. You have to keep pushing and trying like a son of a gun to slow them down.”įrustration with the slowdowns has mounted for weeks, after an already grueling month of House votes was made worse for members by GOP delay tactics. When asked if he intends to plow ahead with the strategy, Biggs responded: “Yeah. Because they’re annoyed.”Īnd many Democrats, as well as a growing number of Republicans, worry that GOP hardliners are showing no signs of backing down anytime soon. And most complaints I’m getting, quite frankly, are from Republicans. But here’s the deal: It’d be nice if the minority leader would tell some of his members to behave like grown-ups,” McGovern said. “Without getting into the details, there are options. House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said he’s discussed the issue with both Hoyer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and will try to “find the best way forward” in the next few weeks. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Feb. Senior Democrats say it’s not clear exactly what a rules change might look like, or whether it would actually work to prevent House Republicans from forcing votes on every single noncontroversial bill. “By the time we come back in April, we will have resolved the obstruction via negotiation or by a change to the rules,” Hoyer said, according to people on the call. Hoyer said Democrats would deploy some kind of formal effort to halt the GOP tactics when the House returns after its upcoming recess. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Democrats during a caucus-wide call on Wednesday that he is working closely with McCarthy to resolve the issue. Rank-and-file members said they increasingly fear that the House schedule will devolve into chaos, with Democrats struggling to keep proceedings orderly as GOP lawmakers seek to disrupt the day on a whim. If GOP lawmakers refuse to relent in their delay tactics, it would mean a slog of roll-call votes on the most mundane of issues - forcing lawmakers into a new way of life where half of their days are spent shuffling on and off the House floor. The ongoing dispute over floor procedures is a wonky but critical one for House leaders of both parties.
Those Republicans say they’re reflecting broad frustration with how Democrats are running the House, from the lack of GOP amendment opportunities to the razor-wire fences erected around the Capitol.
In recent weeks, a small slice of rebellious Republicans have been requesting recorded House votes on non-controversial bills and forcing votes on motions to adjourn, causing headaches for their colleagues and scrambling the floor schedules as members are forced to drop everything to make it to the floor. “You’ve got to get in the way and try to slow things down as much as you possibly can.” “If we won’t use every procedural tool in the toolbox we have … yes, that frustrates me.”īiggs added that, as a member of the minority party, “You’ve got to get in the way and try to slow things down as much as you possibly can.” People are passionate,” Biggs said after the meeting, though he declined to discuss what happened inside. Sources say that during Wednesday’s GOP meeting, Biggs responded that some members have been visiting the border for years and didn’t just show up there recently - a not-so-subtle dig at McCarthy, who led a GOP delegation to the border earlier this week. He called attention to GOP efforts to spotlight the growing crisis at the southern border, where a wave of unaccompanied migrant children has crested since the start of the Biden administration. McCarthy also urged Republicans to be unified on party messaging.
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