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Republicans call for emergency session |
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By Jared Allen and Jackie Kucinich
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Posted: 08/01/08 05:43 PM [ET] |
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After a day of protests on the House floor, Republicans ended their standoff with a round of “God Bless America,” and chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!” It was not clear when or if they intended to return.
Republican lawmakers spent more than five hours making raucous speeches on the floor of a closed House of Representatives. They demanded Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) return to gavel the chamber back into session and said they would consider asking the president to call an emergency session of Congress to vote on a Republican energy plan.
What began as an impromptu protest around noon on the first day of August recess eventually turned into a GOP pep rally on the floor of the House, which was brimming with Republican staff and interns, who cheered on the 48 members who stayed behind to blast Democrats for adjourning before holding a simple majority vote on Republican plans for drilling in protected areas.
When the Capitol Police finally closed the public galleries at 4:30 p.m., Republicans left the floor to hold a press conference, where they said they were prepared to phone President Bush and ask him to call Congress into an emergency session.
Republicans threatened to stay until that happened or Pelosi returned.
“It’s not how long is this going to go on, it’s how soon is Speaker Pelosi going to come back here and give us a vote?” thundered Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas). Brady was one of a few Republicans who were on their way back to their districts but instead returned to back up their GOP colleagues.
At the start, Brady and other Republicans were engaging members of the public, who were in the gallery but also who had drifted down onto the floor, even fielding questions. But toward the end, with hundreds of GOP staff filling the rows, cheering and chanting, the spontaneous event had become a full-scale rally.
Pelosi’s office had no response to the Republican calls to reopen the House.
“Our statement is the vote we had on the floor,” said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami, referring to the adjournment motion set the calendar for the House’s five-week recess. “They asked for their vote. They got their vote. They lost.” For more details on the events of the day, see an earlier story posted. |
