Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who attempted to force hundreds of House lawmakers to return to the Capitol during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure passage of an urgent economic relief package last month, is threatening to block a new urgent funding bill.
Lawmakers began negotiating a new coronavirus spending package worth hundreds of billions of dollars that they hope to quickly pass this week through unanimous consent, which does not require members to take a roll call vote. Congress will not be in session until April 20, at the earliest, because of the coronavirus and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she does not support using remote voting during the coronavirus crisis but has assigned a top lawmaker to study it.
Massie disagrees, telling the Washington Examiner, “I recommend they implement remote voting during the crisis instead of encouraging Pelosi to try and pass bills in an empty chamber.”
The Kentucky congressman declined to say whether he would stand in the way of quick passage of a new economic relief bill, but he indicated his opposition to the move in a Tuesday tweet citing the Constitution, which calls for a majority to be present in the chamber to constitute a quorum for conducting business.
“Folks, this isn’t some esoteric House rule, this is the US Constitution,” Massie tweeted.
Folks, this isn’t some esoteric House rule, this is the US Constitution. https://t.co/z2tkrKaAtD
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 7, 2020
In an interview on Fox Business on Wednesday, Massie said he opposes passing a new spending package.
“But the main thing that I’m against is letting Nancy Pelosi do it in the House on her own without members being accountable,” Massie said. “The Constitution requires that at least half of them vote on this. So let’s enable remote voting.”
Remote voting was first proposed by California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell in 2013. “Companies and families across the country are using technology to communicate remotely. There is no reason that the legislative branch of the world’s oldest democracy cannot do the same,” Swalwell said at the time.
House and Senate lawmakers are negotiating a new spending package they hope to pass this week.
Senate Republicans, at the request of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, said they will try on Thursday to pass a $250 billion measure to supplement a fund to help keep struggling small businesses from shuttering.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, plans to try to pass the measure by seeking unanimous consent, but he’ll first need to get an agreement with House and Senate Democrats.
On Wednesday morning, Democrats announced their counteroffer, which includes an additional $100 billion for hospitals and other healthcare facilities, $150 billion to bail out struggling state and local governments, and a 15% percent boost in food stamp benefits.
The two parties will have to negotiate a deal before attempting to pass a measure by unanimous consent in each chamber. But even with a bipartisan accord, any lawmaker, including Massie, can block a bill from passing by unanimous consent.
Massie last month flew to Washington, D.C., to try to force House lawmakers to take a roll call vote on the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package. House members in both parties thwarted Massie by gathering a majority in the chamber and blocking his request.
President Trump called for Massie to be expelled from the GOP, while Pelosi categorized Massie as a “dangerous nuisance” in an MSNBC interview. Massie insists his goal was not to delay the bill, but rather follow constitutional guidelines.
“I didn’t attempt to delay the bill. If my motive had been to delay the bill, I would have waited until Friday to tell anybody what my plans were,” Massie told the Washington Examiner, asserting that Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy “conspired” to pass the relief bill without a majority in each party present.
Massie claimed that, while discussing his intentions to follow constitutional procedure, Pelosi told him on the House floor that her goal was to “conceal who was present and who was not.”
Massie also accused McCarthy of saying “it would be politically unfair to our colleagues if their constituents found out they didn’t show up for the vote,” to which the Kentucky Republican says he objected. “He also wished me luck with my election,” said Massie, characterizing the statement as a “sincere threat.”
A House GOP aide told the Washington Examiner that McCarthy was solely motivated to “pass needed relief for the American people quickly while minimizing potential health risks posed to members by traveling and assembling.” The aide added that “allegations his intentions were about politics are unfounded and nonsensical.”
McCarthy’s office declined to comment. Pelosi’s team did not respond to a request for comment.
During his Wednesday Fox Business appearance, Massie insisted he’s not to blame for slowing down a bill by insisting on a roll call vote.
“Ten days ago, I got blamed by everybody, including the president, for trying to delay the bill,” Massie said. “I wasn’t trying to do that. I was just trying to get some accountability. And there’s a way to get accountability without delaying the bill and without even making congressmen travel. I think they should travel. I mean they used to have a plan for putting us in a mountain in West Virginia if things got bad. Now the congressmen don’t even want to go to work when things are bad.”
For now, Massie may not get a chance to block a new bill because party leaders have yet to agree on the package.
In a statement Wednesday, Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and member of the leadership team, accused Democrats of trying to block an urgently needed small business package. “Senate Democrats should drop their shameful threat to block this funding immediately. Our small businesses desperately need help — now,” Cornyn said.
As Massie campaigns for his re-election, the Kentucky Republican promises to be a strong ally of Trump going forward. Massie, 49, first elected to the House in 2012, is highlighting flaws and inconsistencies with his GOP primary challenger in his congressional district, in Northeastern Kentucky, along the Ohio River. Todd McMurtry, a lawyer and Massie’s challenger, once issued harsh words for Trump earlier in his presidency, posting on social media that he hopes the military would defy Trump’s orders and stage a coup d’etat. McMurty has since apologized for the comments on local radio.
“My opponent is a Never Trumper pretending to be a Trump supporter,” Massie said to the Washington Examiner. “He can’t hide from it.”
Massie, an MIT-educated engineer holding over two dozen patents, is not the only Kentucky Republican who has been subject to Trump’s ire. In 2017, Trump attacked McConnell for his inability to rally a slim Senate GOP majority around repealing and replacing the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. “Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn’t get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!” Trump said then. Since then, Trump has lauded McConnell for the Senate’s approval of federal judges and for his impeachment acquittal earlier this year.
“I’m sticking with the president,” Massie said of his campaign going forward. “I’m part of a not-so-exclusive club of very respectable people who still support the president,” he later said.
Massie has campaigned against “radical liberals,” telling constituents in campaign ads that Democrats have become more extreme as he’s partnered with the president to accomplish his agenda. “The more battles you, President Trump, and I have won together, the more extreme the left has become,” Massie said.
