House Devolves Into Lawmakers Just Voting To Punish Each Other

WASHINGTON – Not every fight in Congress is partisan.

In the House this week, Republicans have been going after Republicans. Democrats have been going after Democrats. Lawmakers in both parties have been picking different sides each time.

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These aren’t policy fights. Lawmakers keep introducing resolutions to punish each other for various things they’ve done in the past. They’ve brought up three resolutions in the last two days, and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is planning to introduce a fourth on Wednesday night.

Votes on these measures are entirely symbolic. A censure resolution is a formal statement of disapproval, but it doesn’t have any material effect, like forcing someone out of office. Similarly, a resolution to reprimand a member of Congress has no real impact, though unlike a censure, it spares the lawmaker the humiliation of standing in the well of the House and having the resolution read aloud to them.

But these spats have eaten up hours of House floor time this week and escalated tensions between and within parties. And, because lawmakers can introduce these resolutions as a “privileged” matter, it means a single lawmaker can bring one up for a vote on the House floor pretty much anytime.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) started the trend Monday night, when she infuriated her party by bringing forward a resolution to reprimand Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.) for what she called “election subversion.” She has accused Garcia, who recently announced his retirement plans, of scheming to install his chief of staff as his successor.

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The vote was awkward as hell: It passed Tuesday, with 10 lawmakers not voting at all and four others voting present. More than two dozen Democrats sided with Gluesenkamp Perez on the vote, along with all Republicans.

“I am profoundly grateful to have had 235 other Members of Congress stand with me, including 22 other Democrats,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement after the vote. “It shouldn’t have caused as much friction as it did to speak honestly and consistently about election subversion.”

Hours later, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution to censure Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.) and kick her off the House Intelligence Committee after news reports indicated she’d been texting with late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing. She’s denied wrongdoing, saying Epstein was her constituent and their contact was limited to gathering information for a committee hearing.

Plaskett narrowly avoided her censure. Every Democrat voted against the measure, along with three Republicans, Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Lance Gooden (Texas) and Dave Joyce (Ohio). Three Republicans tried to stay out of it entirely by voting present: Reps. Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.), Dan Meuser (Pa.) and Jay Obernolte (Calif.).

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Angry over Republicans targeting Plaskett, Democrats retaliated with their own resolution to censure Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.). Their measure sought to remove him from the House Armed Services Committee over past allegations that he assaulted a woman at a Washington apartment, and after he’d been accused of threatening his ex-girlfriend, Florida state committeewoman Lindsey Langston, with revenge porn. Mills has denied wrongdoing.

As if this wasn’t already enough drama in the House, Democrats withdrew their resolution against Mills in a deal they cut with the Republicans, who agreed not to vote for the resolution against Plaskett. This deal angered some conservative Republicans like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.), who had been pushing to rebuke both Plaskett and Mills.

“The Plaskett censure failed because house leadership exchanged the vote to protect a republican that’s having a lot of issues and should NOT seek re-election,” Luna fumed on social media.

“The swamp protects itself,” she wrote in another post.

Luna will almost certainly be supporting Mace’s resolution on Wednesday night. Mace will try, again, to censure Mills.

Earlier Wednesday, Mace wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), urging him to remove Mills from both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. She gave numerous reasons why she thinks he doesn’t belong on either panel, ranging from personal conduct allegations he’s faced to international arms-dealing concerns to questions about his Bronze Star military award.

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“We simply cannot have an alleged arms dealer with foreign business sitting on the Committee on Foreign Affairs nor can we have stolen valor represented on the Committee on Armed Services,” Mace says in her letter.

It’s not normal for so many of these resolutions to be coming up at once. The last time a member of Congress was censured was in March, and before that, in 2023. The last time someone was formally reprimanded was in 2020.

Asked what Mace hopes to accomplish by introducing yet another censure resolution this week, her office pointed to her public statement on her plans.

“This privileged resolution is about drawing a line: defending the integrity of Congress, standing with survivors who are too often dismissed or silenced, and respecting veterans whose courage is not up for debate,” Mace said in her statement. “This is bigger than politics, it’s about right and wrong.”

CORRECTION: This story has been amended to correct the state that Rep. Don Bacon represents.

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