House Speaker Paul Ryan said he is weighing punishment for Democrats who seized the House floor in June for 25 hours in an effort to win votes on gun control measures.
“I am very worried about the trend and the precedent and so we are looking at all options for consequences to make sure that we can get Congress working again,” Ryan told reporters on Thursday.
Ryan said he has met with the House Sergeant at Arms, the parliamentarians and other House floor staff to examine the actions of Democrats.
During the demonstration, which lasted from June 22 until June 23, Democrats live-streamed proceeding with their own electronic devices and sat on the floor in protest, which both appear to violate the rules of the House. Democrats also disrupted legislative business by shouting and thrusting signs in the air as the Republican majority attempted to conduct business.
“We did an exhaustive review,” Ryan said. “We researched the tape, looked at what infractions occurred, what kinds of rules were violated.”
Ryan said he has received “a number of recommendations from the dispassionate objective of authorities here in Congress,” about whether to punish Democrats, adding, “we have not taken any options off the table.”
Ryan spoke as House Democrats conducted a string of floor speeches demanding action on a bill to expand background checks and legislation to prevent those on the terror watch list from purchasing firearms.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., scoffed at the possibility that Democrats would be punished for conducting the June floor demonstrations.
She pointed out that the protest was conducted by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights icon who was arrested numerous times during the protests and demonstrations of the 1960s.
“We are not going away,” Pelosi told reporters. “We will persist until we get a bill passed to protect the American people.
Pelosi said “I’ll do what my members want to do,” when she was asked whether Democrats will conduct more sit-in demonstrations.
