Greene and Freedom Caucus members force delay on votes for non-controversial legislation
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and several members of the House Freedom Caucus made plans Monday night to ask for a roll call vote on a series of suspension bills.
The move forced House Democrats to delay votes on 13 non-controversial pieces of legislation. These types of measures that are generally passed with wide bipartisan support either through voice vote or unanimous consent. Forcing a roll call vote on each measure would’ve taken up to 10 hours to pass the bills because of Covid restrictions in place in the House of Representatives.
Among the bills being considered were Congressional Gold Medal awards for members of the Capitol Police Force and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, called the move “unfortunate” but told CNN he is trying to work the situation out with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican. At this point his office has yet to schedule a new time for the measures to be voted on.
Greene confirmed that she was a part of the maneuver to force roll call votes on the legislation. It was an example of several tactics she’s employed to stymie the work of the Congress. She regularly offers up a motion to adjourn, which requires a roll call vote of the entire Congress, which takes 45 minutes and has yet to succeed.
“The American people deserve to know where their member of Congress stands with a roll call vote,” Greene said in a statement to CNN. “While thousands of illegal aliens are invading Biden’s open border, American kids are losing their education with closed schools, thousands of small businesses have been forced to shut down, the People really don’t care about politicians whining about voting and doing their job for 10 hours.”
However, the suspension bills before Congress on Monday had nothing to do with the topics Greene claims she was focused on. Instead, they addressed issues like child abuse treatment and prevention, literacy and credit management. Three of the bills were even sponsored by Greene’s fellow Republicans.
According to one aide to a senior Republican official, rank-and-file GOP members are starting to grow frustrated with Greene’s fruitless delay tactics.
“Her act is starting to wear thin,” said the aide.
But some Republicans rushed to her defense. GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a high-profile member of the House Freedom Caucus, told CNN he had nothing to do with the effort to force the roll call votes but he had no problem with Greene exerting her rights as a member of Congress.
“I think (Greene) is just doing her committee work,” said Jordan, referencing the fact that Greene was stripped of her committee assignments by House Democrats earlier this year. “That is her committee work.”
Other Republicans though, argued that maneuvers like this are counter-productive.
“I think this is an end result of what the House has become, what the posture of the House has become,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, a Republican from Illinois. “I think what you’re seeing with a lot of the shenanigans on the floor is because so many members have so much time on their hands to be able to go to the floor, and worry about what’s happening with suspension bills rather than moving along, trying to look at legislating into the future.”
Davis argued that if the leaders of the House, both Republican and Democrat, could come up with a plan to loosen the tight restrictions due to coronavirus, tactics like this would be less effective.
“I certainly hope that (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, all of us, we can sit down and work out a plan to reopen the House,” Davis said. “I think that’s going to help us move ahead because when people see light at the end of the tunnel, then they’re going to start planning for that light at the end of the tunnel, planning for the Capitol to reopen again, and leading us back to where we’re still partisan, but we’re not doing it in a way that just becomes sometimes childish.”
