Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Bedlam erupts in House sit-in by Democrats

House

House Television via AP

In this image from video, House Speaker Paul Ryan stands at the podium as he brings the House into session Wednesday night, June 22, 2016, in Washington. Rebellious Democrats staged an extraordinary all-day sit-in on the House floor to demand votes on gun-control bills, shouting down Ryan when he attempted to restore order as their protest stretched into the night.

WASHINGTON — A Democratic sit-in on the House floor demanding votes on gun-control legislation led to a remarkable scene of pandemonium and a late-night confrontation Wednesday when Speaker Paul D. Ryan was shouted down after briefly regaining control.

Democrats pressed against the speaker’s dais, waving signs with the names of gun victims and chanting “No bill! No break!” as Ryan repeatedly banged his gavel in an attempt to restore order.

When Ryan gave up and left the speaker’s chair, Democrats shouted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

The standoff continued early Thursday, as Ryan contemplated adjourning the House until July 5, which would shut down the Democrats’ protest or leave them alone in a darkened, empty chamber.

Republicans were planning to push one last vote, on the annual military-construction and Veterans Affairs bill — considered politically vital because it contains $1.1 billion to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

Earlier, there were scenes of chaos as Republicans tried to resume regular business. At one point Democrats began singing “We Shall Overcome” — altering the lyrics to say “We shall pass a bill some day” — as Republicans shouted in outrage.

And when Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, tried to confront the chanting Democrats, he was restrained by aides and colleagues.

The chaos was set off with the sit-in around noon when Democrats reiterated their demand for a vote on gun measures before Congress began its weeklong July Fourth recess.

“We will not leave the floor of this House until this Congress takes action!” Rep. Kathy D. Castor, D-Fla., declared.

Democrats — who do not have enough strength in either the House or Senate to pass legislation on their own — have resorted to spectacle to highlight their anger over the failure by Congress to take any action to tighten the nation’s gun-control laws.

The House Democrats’ anger, and their willingness to disrupt the proceedings, seemed to take some Republicans by surprise as they stood on the sidelines.

The Democrats’ leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, arrived on the floor with an air of calm, surveying her rank and file’s protest as it gathered steam. Ryan, in an interview on CNN, dismissed the sit-in as a publicity stunt.

The Democrats began their latest push, including a 15-hour filibuster last week by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., after the June 12 massacre in Orlando, Florida.

They have repeatedly accused Republicans of siding with the National Rifle Association rather than with the victims of gun violence.

Democrats’ exasperation has grown since Monday, when four gun-control measures — two favored by Democrats and two by Republicans — were defeated in the Senate.

The turmoil Wednesday and Thursday in the House illustrated the differences in partisan relations in the House and Senate.

Typical of the more restrained and decorous Senate, Murphy’s speeches last week were derided by Republicans as a pointless “talkathon,” but there were no confrontations and no shouting. Under Senate rules, any one senator who is recognized to speak can hold the floor until relinquishing it.

The House gives the minority no such rights, and the Democrats resorted to an insurrection. Shortly after the sit-in began on Wednesday, Republicans quickly declared a recess, cutting off regular business — as well as the live television feed of floor proceedings, which operates only when the House is in session.

The Democrats were left in control of the chamber, where they gave a series of impassioned speeches and skirted the television blackout by using Twitter’s live-feed Periscope service to broadcast their efforts. That was a violation of House rules, which bans cameras or other electronic devices on the floor.

C-SPAN carried the Periscope feed as if the House were in session, albeit with the unavoidably shaky camerawork by lawmakers using their cellphones.

Even by the hyperpartisan standards of modern Washington, the sit-in was a brazen disruption that underscored the outrage many lawmakers have expressed about the failure of Congress to act on gun legislation in the aftermath of numerous mass shootings.

In 2008, House Republicans, then in the minority, held a “quasi session” during summer recess to protest the Democrats’ refusal to hold votes on energy policy amid sharply rising gasoline prices. The Republicans met in a darkened chamber, a point they recalled with no small amount of outrage amid Democrats’ complaints on Wednesday. A key difference, though, was that the House was in recess then and no business was interrupted as the protest continued for several days.

On Wednesday, Democrats short-circuited an active legislative session, for which Republicans had scheduled votes on a number of measures, including amendments to the annual financial services and general government appropriations bill. By late afternoon, Republicans said they still intended to conduct business, but the Democrats showed no sign of relenting.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., seemed to sum up their collective resolve when she said, “I’m prepared to stand here until hell freezes over.”

Pelosi said her caucus was seeking votes on measures similar to two Democratic proposals that failed to advance in the Senate.

One of those sought to ban gun sales to people on the government’s terrorism watch list, while the second would expand and toughen background checks for gun buyers. Those two measures were defeated on Monday in the Senate, along with two Republican alternatives.

Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a hero to many Democrats because of his role in the civil rights movement, initiated the protest on Wednesday.

“We have to occupy the floor of the House until there’s action,” he said.

Congress has long been deadlocked over tightening the nation’s gun laws. But outrage and frustration have grown since the massacre in Orlando and a number of other mass shootings in recent years.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has drafted a narrower compromise measure. But despite some bipartisan backing, that proposal also seems in danger of failing for lack of sufficient Republican support.

Even if all Senate Democrats and the independents who caucus with them voted in favor, which is hardly assured, at least 14 Republicans would need to agree to reach the 60-vote threshold for advancing the measure. Collins still seemed far short of that number on Wednesday.

Democrats also pushed the gun issue at a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee, putting forward an amendment to the annual Homeland Security spending bill that would bar individuals suspected of terrorist activities from purchasing firearms, similar to a Democratic measure that failed in the Senate on Monday.

“I just want to make it very clear that I’d rather my child be inconvenienced than dead,” said Rep. Nita M. Lowey of New York, the committee’s top Democrat.

The amendment failed, with every Republican and two Democrats voting against it.

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