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Rep. Gohmert accuses Dems of holding vote open |
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By Jackie Kucinich
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Posted: 05/24/07 07:16 PM [ET] |
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) took to the House floor yesterday to decry what he called a Democratic abuse of the chamber’s rules after a subcommittee chairman allegedly held a vote open until a Republican amendment failed.
According to Gohmert, a vote on an amendment offered by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) was to be held open for 15 minutes by National Resources National Parks, Forests and Public Lands subcommittee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Upon hearing this, the Texas lawmaker raced from the Judiciary Committee hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building to the Natural Resources Committee room in the Longworth building to make the vote.
“I came out of the elevator and ran down the hall,” Gohmert told The Hill. “The amendment was passing, but as soon as there were more nays than yeas he called it, just as I was coming to vote ... it had only been nine or 10 minutes.”
Gohmert said he took to the floor to make sure the incident was in the record.
The Texas Republican considered offering a privileged motion, but in the wake of Rep. Mike Rogers’s (R-Mich.) motion against Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) earlier this week, he decided against it.
Gohmert added that Grijalva’s actions are another example of an abuse of power by Democrats.
Grijalva, however, disputed Gohmert’s account.
“It’s much ado about nothing,” he said.
Grijalva said that two Democrats who walked in with Gohmert also were not able to vote during the markup that occurred earlier this year.
“I was between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “If I held it open it would have been too long, if I didn’t it wasn’t long enough.”
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