Absentee oaths add wrinkle to proceedings

By CQ Staff
The first votes cast in the 112th Congress by a pair of Republican lawmakers will likely be thrown out by the House after it was discovered Thursday that they voted before being sworn into office.
Reps. Pete Sessions of Texas and Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania apparently were in another part of the Capitol when Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, administered the oath of office to House members in the chamber Jan. 5.
They were sworn in by Boehner on Thursday afternoon, but not before they had each participated in five roll call votes and one quorum call that followed Boehner’s election as Speaker.
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Rules Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said the resolution his panel is drafting to govern floor action next week on a Republican proposal (HR 2) to repeal the 2010 health care law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) will include language that would vitiate the votes cast by Sessions and Fitzpatrick before their swearing-in.
Such an action would not change the outcome of any of the House votes.
The Rules Committee recessed for more than 90 minutes in the middle of its marathon hearing Thursday on the health care bill after it became clear that Sessions, a member of the panel and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, had voted several times on the floor and in committee although he was not yet sworn in to begin his eighth House term.
After discussions with House parliamentarians, Dreier announced that “nothing has been violated as far as the actions of this committee” and that the upcoming rule would cancel out the two lawmakers’ floor votes. “The cleanest way to doing this is to address this in the rule,” Dreier said.
Another option might have been a unanimous consent request, but it was unclear whether Democrats would have let the new GOP majority escape a minor embarrassment so easily.
“What in the world was more important to Congressmen-elect Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick than taking the oath of office, committing to support and defend the U.S. Constitution?” wrote Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. “Republicans have spent a lot of time over the past two days proselytizing about House rules, but they don’t seem very keen on actually following the rules.”
The new House Democratic minority also would be glad to see the repeal effort hit a snag. Louise M. Slaughter, the top Rules Committee Democrat, expressed concern about continuing the hearing without completely resolving any constitutional issues that might be raised by Sessions’ participation.
“We feel that we are on somewhat shaky ground,” she said. “We would feel better, on our side, if we could recess and start the hearing over tomorrow.”
“How many other people decided not to take the oath on the floor?” Slaughter asked.
Dreier cited “a standard of collegiality” suggested by Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 “Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States,” which Dreier said indicates that a House member need only be in proximity of the Speaker when the oath of office is administered.
In 1837, the House adopted Jefferson’s manual in all cases except when its parliamentary guidance contradicts other rules of the House.
A Sessions spokesperson said the Texan “stated the oath publicly in the Capitol, but was not on the House floor” during the swearing-in.
The Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times published a photograph that the paper said showed Sessions and Fitzpatrick among a group of Fitzpatrick political supporters in the Capitol Visitor Center, their right hands raised, as the oath was being administered in the House chamber.
The House does not take attendance during the swearing-in ceremony at the beginning of each Congress. Both Sessions and Fitzpatrick participated in an initial quorum call and were in the chamber to vote for Boehner in the Speaker’s election.
“The purpose of the quorum call is to bring members to the floor,” said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck. “Members are expected to stay on the floor afterwards, but often don’t. Any member not on the floor for swearing is expected to make that known to leadership to rectify.”
Also sworn in Thursday was Democratic Rep. Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, who was not in Washington on Jan. 5. He did not vote before being sworn in.
-- Ben Weyl and Niels Lesniewski, CQ Staff