Though her House floor tactics haven’t stopped any Democratic bills from passing in the House, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says the efforts are worth it and have the backing from a vast majority of Republican colleagues.
The first-term congresswoman from Georgia has no committee assignments after Democrats stripped them from her due to her support, before reaching Congress, of various conspiracy theories, at least in part. Even without her committee assignments, she’s captured headlines in recent weeks by pushing “motions to adjourn” the House when major bills are being considered, such as President Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending bill or gun control measures.
A growing number of House Republicans are voting against the motions to adjourn. Forty opposed her effort to stall a recent package of gun control bills pushed by House Democrats. Still, that’s only a fraction of the 211-member House Republican Conference, most of whom have voted with Greene on motions to adjourn.
Her procedural motions have also attracted the notice of House Republican leadership. She was called into House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office last week to discuss her use of the tactic.
“Well, it wasn’t a bad meeting at all. I think the misconception out there is that I don’t have support in the conference, but I have tons of support in the conference, which is a great thing,” Greene said of her talk with McCarthy. “I’ve had conversations with the ones that complained, and I reminded them, ‘Look, while people are working hard, long days, and these gentlemen (pointing to U.S. Capitol Police) are standing on their feet all day, people are at home or showing up working on job sites. They’re working 12-hour shifts.”
Greene, who slips into the House chamber during debate, will call for a motion to adjourn that disrupts congressional business by forcing a lengthy roll-call vote of the entire body. Without committee work, Greene has used her time to make declarations about legislation.
Greene says she has every intention to continue calling motions to adjourn, which she called the one procedural tool left at her disposal.
“I guess the best way to describe it is everyone that I know back at home in my district and the people I talk to all over the country just feel like they’re drinking out of a woke, progressive fire hose with all the crazy things that the Democrats are trying to ram through,” Greene said, citing a police reform bill, a voting and campaign finance bill, and Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending package.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE’S PROCEDURAL ANTICS SPLITTING HOUSE GOP FACTIONS
But some Republican lawmakers, current and former, don’t see it that way.
Denver Riggleman, a former Virginia Republican congressman, disparaged Greene on Twitter, calling her a “click addict” as well as a “conspiracy nut & narcissist.”
“You can request a roll call vote on suspensions. Sure. But, procedural, naming & other non-controversial bills passed by voice vote are constitutional & appropriately streamlined. Thousands of bills are filed,” wrote Riggleman, who was a House member from 2019 to 2021 but lost renomination last year in his south-central Virginia district.
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But Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy defended Greene.
“I’m certainly not shy to use the rules of the House to create some havoc where it’s appropriate, and I would just say if the Democrats don’t want Marjorie hanging out on or objecting, maybe they should put her on a committee, rather than unilaterally stripping her of her borderline rights as a member of Congress to have some equal say representing her constituents,” Roy told the Washington Examiner.
