House Fixes Votes-Without-Oaths Problem
The House officially took action today to right a wrong committed in the first days of the new Republican House of Representatives.
On the very first day of the 112th Congress, three members were missing when Speaker John Boehner administered the oath of office to members-elect. One Democrat, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), had an excused absence because of a meeting in his district about a local veterans hospital. Two Republicans just flat-out missed it.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and incoming Rep Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) cast their votes in favor of John Boehner for Speaker, but then made their way down below the basement of the Capitol to the Capitol Visitors Center, where Fitzpatrick's constituents were waiting.
Around 250 of the 500 people at the event donated $30 to the Fitzpatrick for Congress campaign in order to catch a bus from Bucks County, PA to the Capitol to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Gary Weckselblatt, a journalist with the Bucks County Courier, took the bus trip down to Washington with a photographer to cover Fitzpatrick's first day in the new Congress. He said there were about 500 people attending the reception in the Capitol and that there was a simple spread of make-your-own sandwiches with cold cuts and bread.
He said that Fitzpatrick arrived earlier than expected -- around 2:30pm, with Sessions. The two started making rounds and shaking hands with supporters when everyone suddenly heard the new Speaker Boehner administering the oath to members-elect over the television. Weckselblatt said you "could have heard a pin drop."
The two lawmakers responded by raising their right hands and taking the oath right there.
The problem is that the two members then went about their business as if the oath via the television counted. They voted for the House rules package. Rep. Sessions presided over a House Rules committee meeting to repeal health care. And yesterday, both voted to cut Congressional budgets by five percent.
Boehner officially administered the oath to the two members yesterday afternoon on the House floor.
But the House somehow had to correct those votes and actions taken in the Rules Committee. Today, the full House considered a resolution "Relating to the status of certain actions taken by Members-elect."
The two-page resolution essentially deletes, or repeals, the votes taken by Sessions and Fitzpatrick in their first two days in office this year.
In the four minutes allowed for debate on the measure, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) took a swipe at the Republicans who lead the reading of the constitution on the House floor, saying that on the same day that reading took place "the constitutional requirement for oath was violated."
Chair of the Rules Committee David Dreier (R-CA) acknowledged the need to correct and delete the member's votes, but did say that the two members "were in this Capitol when they took the oath of office. They didn't happen to be in this exact room." Members in the chamber burst into laughter at the defense.
The resolution to correct their voting record passed the House today by a vote of 257 to 159 -- with the three members who did not take the oath of office in the House chamber on that first day voting present.