Since the House voted last month to strip firebrand freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, she has found another way to make a statement: make a motion to adjourn on the House floor.
Greene has used the floor tool three times in the last two weeks, unexpectedly forcing members to vote, delaying House consideration of bills, and disrupting her colleagues’ days.
“She’s doing her committee work,” Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan told the Washington Examiner with a laugh. “You see what the Democrats are doing, you’d love to adjourn and not let these kind-of-crazy bills pass. She’s doing the Lord’s work.”
But a growing number of Republicans are, like Democrats, growing irritated by the move — and the issue is exposing divides within the House Republican Conference.
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During her first motion to adjourn on Feb. 24, as a way to protest the Equality Act, every House Republican who voted supported Greene’s move. She did it again the next day, and two Republicans voted against the move. On Wednesday, when she made a motion to adjourn in order to delay a vote on Democrats’ election reform legislation, 18 Republicans voted against the motion, including three Republicans who voted in favor of impeaching former President Donald Trump.
“We’re getting tired of it,” Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger told the Washington Examiner, adding that it seems like Greene is “just trying to get attention.” Kinzinger voted in favor of Greene’s first motion to adjourn, didn’t vote in favor of the second one, and voted no on Wednesday’s motion.
Democrats have publicly complained about Greene’s moves to force members to the floor unexpectedly and vote on the motion. Because Greene gave no prior notice of her intent to use the procedural, members had to break away from daytime business such as committee meetings, other meetings, fundraising, or whatever else they may have been doing.
California Rep. Ted Lieu said last week that Greene’s “stupid, nonsensical motions” are a “waste of time and taxpayers’ money.” Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego said that he was chairing a classified briefing that Greene forced members to miss. “These tantrums have consequences,” Gallego said.
The procedural tool is not new, and Republicans have used the motion to adjourn to make statements in the past. Rep. Chip Roy used the motion to adjourn a way to protest before the House voted to strip Greene of her committees, and all Republicans supported his motion. In December, members of the Freedom Caucus used the procedural motion to adjourn in order to make a statement against proxy voting, forcing Democrats to show that they could not create a physical in-person quorum.
But Greene’s disruptive motions becoming a frequent fixture of day-to-day are also apparently peeving members in her party.
South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice, who also voted in favor of impeaching Trump, and Florida Rep. John Rutherford were the first two Republicans to vote against Greene’s motion to adjourn. On Wednesday, Republicans who refused to entertain Greene’s move included Rep. Liz Cheney (who recently defeated a challenge to her No. 3 leadership spot in the House conference) and Rep. Jim Banks, the head of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House.
Greene argues that floor motions get real results, pointing to when she called for a roll call vote on an amendment from new far-left “Squad” member Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri. Bush’s amendment to allow currently incarcerated felons to vote being originally passed by voice vote, but Greene was the one who called for a roll call vote, and the amendment then failed 97 to 328.
“This is why floor procedure is important and why Republicans should be using it,” Greene said in a tweet. “We should doing everything we can to stop the Dems radical agenda, not worried about our schedules.”
“Some GOP members complained to me that I messed up their schedule. I’m not sorry for interrupting fundraising calls & breakfast,” she said in another tweet on Wednesday.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie backed Greene up in a tweet: “Some congressmen are upset they had to interrupt their fundraisers this morning to vote on this. Maybe they shouldn’t have voted to strip her of all committee assignments?”
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Jordan dismissed the argument that Greene’s procedural tactics are disrupting important work, noting that Democrats have also kept Republicans waiting.
“There’s plenty of time to get the real work done,” he said.
