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House Democrats Throw Out the Rule Book. But to What End? Three Separate, Equal and Dysfunctional Branches of Government
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — In a year of disruptive politics, House Democrats have gotten into the act. WASHINGTON — The continuing breakdown in Washington’s ability to govern seemed to spread like a contagion Thursday through all three branches of government.
Frustrated at being shut out under the rigid rules of the House, the least powerful political wing in Washington fought back ferociously into the early morning Thursday with a raucous floor sit-in, demanding a vote on gun control and throwing the House rule book out of the Capitol’s neoclassical windows in the process. The dysfunction somehow managed to reach new levels. The Supreme Court, left short-handed by a Republican refusal to act on President Obama’s nominee in the final year of his presidency, deadlocked on a major immigration case. The inaction validated a lower court finding against the administration’s attempt to allow millions of unauthorized immigrants to live legally in the United States.
Legislatively, the Democrats lost badly in the end, but attracted considerable public attention via a remarkable social media feed streamed on usually staid C-Span, in some cases from their own mobile devices. They vowed on Thursday to press ahead even though Speaker Paul D. Ryan and his fellow Republicans were racing out of town and would not return until after the Fourth of July. Mr. Obama, who sought to address the nation’s immigration crisis through his executive powers because of a persistent impasse on Capitol Hill, found himself unable to achieve one of his major goals — an outcome that pleased Republicans but left the president angry and disappointed.
But it was the House Democrats, not typically known for radical revolutionary tactics, who were declaring their independence. Democrats ended a raucous 25-hour protest on the House floor, failing in their attempts to gain a vote on gun safety issues but exulting in the attention they received via a breakout social media campaign that threw the House rule book out the Capitol’s neoclassical windows. Republican leaders accused Democrats of trying to capitalize on the Orlando, Fla., shooting while destroying the decorum of the House.
“We are going to keep the fires burning on this issue because the American people demand it,” said a hoarse Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, as he held forth on the floor early Thursday. The decision by Democrats to act out in the House was just the latest attempt to upend the political status quo in a year distinguished by political disruption, from Donald J. Trump rattling the Republican establishment to Senator Bernie Sanders — the democratic socialist who made an appearance at the House protest — drawing huge crowds of young voters with calls to radically change the way Americans think about government.
What the payoff will be remains unclear. House Democrats were already expected to gain seats in the November election but a takeover is still considered a long shot, even with Donald J. Trump, the ultimate disruptive force, as the Republican nominee. And Mr. Ryan showed that he could still command the majority-really-rules House even during the protest by muscling a bill through over Democratic objections. The cloistered Supreme Court finds itself disrupted as well by its empty seat, unable to fully function because of a Senate unwilling to act.
Mr. Ryan defended his actions on Thursday, saying he pushed the legislation to thwart the Democrats’ determination to have the House “descend into chaos.” Mr. Ryan told reporters, “We were going to get our job done.” In what passes in today’s capital for a breakthrough, eight Senate Republicans joined Democrats in giving majority support to a bipartisan gun safety compromise to prevent terrorism suspects from buying firearms. But that plan, engineered by Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, can go nowhere until she rounds up significantly more Republican support.
Democrats said they were energized by the protest, but they face a reality that only a couple of dozen House seats are considered truly competitive. It could also be the case that the animation of Thursday quickly gives way to fervor created by two Supreme Court decisions on Thursday on other cultural flash points — affirmative action and immigration. Tempers were short and patience waned after a long night of confrontation on the House floor occupied by Democrats to the outrage of Republicans, who forced an adjournment vote shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday.
The outlook for any progress on gun measures looks dim considering the stalemate in the Senate and the refusal so far by House Republican leaders to even bring up a legislative proposal. “This is the people’s House, this is Congress, the House of Representatives, the oldest democracy in the world and they’re descending it into chaos,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan told reporters Thursday as the protest was winding up. “This isn’t a proud moment for democracy or for the people who staged these stunts.”
Still, the defiance by the House Democrats, who angrily declined to simply bow to the Republican majority and head out of town without even a vote on gun control after the killings in Orlando, Fla., showed they were willing to fight. Even so, some liberals thought a defining fight over a bill based on suspects on no-fly lists might not be the best idea. House Democrats had seen their brethren in the Senate, who have much more legislative leverage, force Republicans to vote on gun proposals with another test vote looming on a compromise plan. As part of that final vote, House Republicans approved and sent to the Senate a bill to address the Zika health threat months after the White House sought the money. But the package, assembled with little Democratic participation, contained elements they knew Senate Democrats would oppose. The calculation appeared to be that if Democrats now block it, they will the ones blamed rather than Republicans.
But the whole chaotic scene on the House floor as lawmakers almost came to blows in an American version of foreign legislators duking it out could just turn people off Washington even more — if that is even possible. Democrats saw that as just another provocation.
Still, Democrats, who said they decided they had to escalate their level of obstreperous behavior because they were getting nowhere playing by traditional House rules, were feeling good about their revolt. And they said they were motivated even more by the disdain heaped on them by Republicans during the hours on the House floor. “What you are seeing happening is a level of frustration that is just boiling over,” said Representative Joseph Crowley of New York, one of the ringleaders of the Democratic floor revolt.
“It’s just been very moving,” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois. “I think in part we were inspired by the kind of cynicism we saw last night from the Republicans.” For the duration of the sit-in, the House chamber, where electronic devices and photographs are frowned on, was awash in selfies, Facebook Live and Periscope. Even normally staid C-Span engaged in guerrilla video warfare, streaming a feed from a House member’s phone on its House channel, showing the action as seen from the floor instead of the usual camera angles from the gallery above.
Republicans dismissed the protest as a political stunt and a small group of them remained on the floor at points to taunt Democrats. They accused Democrats of trying to cash in politically on the Orlando tragedy and of breaking their oaths as House members to abide by the rules. House Democrats joyfully flouted House rules. Republicans said that some of their members urged the leadership to employ a cell-signal-jamming device to cut off the coverage, but that was deemed a bad idea.
“I’ve had it with the gun grabbing Democrats and their sit-in anti 2nd amendment jihad” Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, said in a post on Twitter. “I’m going to go home and buy a new gun.” Mr. Ryan and other Republicans suggested there could be repercussions in the form of ethics complaints or other actions against Democrats.
For Mr. Ryan, it was a spectacular collapse of his grand plan to restore regular order to the House, adhering to traditional legislative practices. Instead, a chamber where electronic devices and photos are frowned on was awash in selfies, Facebook Live and Periscope. Even C-Span seemed to be engaged in guerrilla video warfare. Persuading members to return to the old rules after the breakout social media experience could prove difficult. “We’re reviewing everything,” he said. “We are reviewing everything right now, as to what happened and how to make sure that we can bring order to this chaos.”
At the end of the night, Mr. Ryan jammed through a spending bill and a motion to adjourn without even so much as the briefest of debates. What the payoff will be for that chaos orchestrated by House Democrats remains unclear. They were already expected to gain seats in the November election but a takeover is still considered a long shot, even with Mr. Trump as the Republican nominee. And Mr. Ryan showed that he could still command the majority-really-rules House even during the protest.
Still, the defiance by House Democrats, who angrily declined to head out of town without so much as a vote on gun control after the killings in Orlando proved that they were willing to fight. They had seen their brethren in the Senate, who have much more legislative leverage, force a vote on gun proposals and did not want to be pushed aside by the House majority.
But the inability of the Supreme Court to issue a decision, the Senate stalemate on guns, the dispute over the Zika bill and the disorder on the House floor as lawmakers almost came to blows in an American version of foreign legislators duking it out could just turn people off Washington even more — if that is possible.
With dawn just a few hours off, Mr. Ryan jammed through the Zika spending bill and his motion to adjourn to allow Republicans to leave town without even so much as the briefest of debates.
“So we’re locked out of everything, if I am understanding the rule correctly?” Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, a Democrat who is considered an expert on House rules, asked of Mr. Ryan. “This is a lousy process, Mr. Speaker.”“So we’re locked out of everything, if I am understanding the rule correctly?” Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, a Democrat who is considered an expert on House rules, asked of Mr. Ryan. “This is a lousy process, Mr. Speaker.”
The House, as they say on Capitol Hill, was not in order. The House, as they say on Capitol Hill, was not in order, and the rest of the government was struggling as well.