Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Censuring Representative Paul Gosar

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon), my friend, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.

Madam Speaker, today's rule covers one item, a resolution censuring Representative Paul Gosar for a video posted on his official Twitter account last week, and removing him from his seat on the Committees on Oversight and Reform and Natural Resources.

Madam Speaker, today's action, once again, tramples on the traditional norms of the House; the idea that the majority and the minority have the right to appoint their own members to committees as they see fit. It sets a dangerous and disturbing precedent that will likely change the character of the House in the years to come, and not for the better.

And the majority is doing so solely to play politics with this moment and to score a cheap political point at the expense of a Member of the minority.

But before I go into all of that, I do think it is important to lay out the sequence of events that occurred here, since I believe they are instructive.

Last week, Representative Gosar posted a video on his official Twitter account. This video was certainly provocative and, in my opinion, inappropriate.

Upon being informed of the video's existence, Leader McCarthy immediately took action and called Congressman Gosar, conveying the message that this video was inappropriate. After that conversation, Congressman Gosar took the video down and issued a statement explaining and clarifying its meaning, and stating that he certainly didn't approve of violence against any person.

Yesterday, Congressman Gosar took the additional step of appearing before the Republican Conference to further explain his actions. He described that his intention was for a depiction in the video to be symbolic of the policies he opposes, not actual people. He clarified that he did not intend it to be an endorsement of violence and, further, that he does not condone violence.

But not content with his admission to a lapse in judgment, last night the majority made the decision to convene the Rules Committee on short notice to consider a resolution censuring Representative Gosar and removing him from his committee assignments. In doing so, the majority is acting in clear contrast to the existing precedent throughout the history of this institution; a precedent the majority has taken multiple deliberate steps to weaken in this Congress.

Throughout the history of the House of Representatives, the majority and the minority have respected the right of each of their conferences to assign their respective members to committees. The decision about whether to seat a member on a committee, or to remove a member from a committee, traditionally rests with the respective conferences.

Early this year, the majority took two actions to go against that tradition. First, the majority voted to remove a Republican Member of Congress from her committee assignments.

Second, the Speaker unilaterally refused to appoint two of Leader McCarthy's choices to be Republican members on the Select Committee on the January 6 attack and, instead, appointed Republicans she wanted on the committee. Both of these actions are in stark contrast to the norms and traditions of the House of Representatives.

Today, the majority is taking a third such action. This continues to set an extremely dangerous precedent for the future of the institution. In future years, the precedent may be used to give the majority veto power over the minority's committee assignments. That is a slippery slope for the institution to go down.

But to make matters worse, in acting today, the majority is setting a standard for Members of the minority that it does not set for itself. There have been plenty of instances of Members on the majority side using intemperate language, making statements that directly or could be construed as endorsing violence or taking controversial or inappropriate actions; yet, the majority has yet to act to remove one of its own members from their committee assignments.

This is a classic case of the old adage: ``Rules for thee but not for me.'' That is deeply frustrating.

Madam Speaker, if action is truly necessary today, then there are two other options for addressing Representative Gosar's actions than what the majority is proposing. First, the majority can and should leave the matter up to Leader McCarthy and the Republican Conference. Indeed, this was the topic of discussion at yesterday's Republican Conference meeting and, historically, neither Leader McCarthy nor the Republican Conference has shied away from disciplining Members.

Second, the House also has the option of referring Representative Gosar to the Ethics Committee. This is also an appropriate course of action, particularly if the majority believes that a violation of the Code of Ethics has occurred. Such a referral would give the bipartisan Ethics Committee the time to review the matter, allow Representative Gosar to present his arguments, and give the committee the chance to make appropriate recommendations.

But once again, the majority is rushing forward with a resolution to strip a Republican member of a committee assignment without giving either of these two appropriate venues a chance to resolve the matter. In doing so, they are playing politics in the worst way, rushing to condemn a Republican Member for actions for which he has already sought to address.

It is disturbing to note the surprise on my Democratic colleagues' faces last night at the Rules Committee when I referenced the public statement Congressman Gosar released after removing the video. They didn't seem to know about it. I think they are condemning his actions and didn't even know that he had already taken corrective action.

That goes to show, frankly, that we have not taken the appropriate care in looking at this matter, and certainly not given Representative Gosar the opportunity to address it.

Madam Speaker, I urge opposition to the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume simply to make a couple of quick points to some of my friends' concerns.

First of all, nobody has had 2 weeks to act. This incident occurred less than 2 weeks ago, and we were in recess last week. So let's focus on the here and now.

I may be mistaken about this, but I don't think we have kept the Ethics Committee from meeting about this. Quite the opposite, we wish they had.

The chairman did say he would put in a request for an emergency meeting. The reality is, the majority moved ahead, I think, before that could happen. That process, I think, would have been the appropriate one to follow or an appropriate one to follow in this case.

So, I just simply posit those things for the record.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Florida.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to consider a resolution that would add a new House rule stating that any resolution proposing to remove a Member from a committee assignment shall not be in order unless offered by, or with the concurrence of, the leader of the party of the Member that is the subject of the resolution.

Madam Speaker, my amendment would reinforce the longstanding norm of basic fairness that today's resolution does not comply with. Throughout the entire history of the House of Representatives, it has been an unwritten rule, or norm of conduct, that one party does not attempt to exercise a veto over the other party's committee assignments. The reasons for this are obvious. It protects the operations of the institution and ensures that politically motivated attempts to remove Members from committees do not happen.

But the majority's actions, both today and earlier this Congress, threaten that norm and threaten to set off a new round of escalating partisan punishment anytime the majority changes hands. Establishing this as a written rule of the House would ensure that no Member ever faces this kind of partisan retribution again.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Obviously, I oppose the rule. Today's action threatens one of the key norms of this institution, the right of the majority and minority to make committee assignments for their respective Members. It threatens to set a new, dangerous precedent for this institution, allowing the majority to have a veto over the minority's assignments.

Representative Gosar has already addressed his misguided decision to post the video and has sought to rectify it.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question, ``no'' on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source