House Republican leaders feel like they had a good week last week. President Donald Trump gave an address to Congress that the GOP loved (and Democrats hated). The Republican leadership released a proposed CR that they hope to rally the entire party around – with Trump’s blessing. And on Thursday, the House voted to censure Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who interrupted Trump’s speech, with Democratic support.
Enter the House Freedom Caucus.
The hardline conservative flank of the House Republican Conference is looking to take things a step further by stripping Green of his only committee assignment, a seat on the Financial Services Committee. The HFC is upset that Green and other Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” while standing in the well of the House during the reading of the censure resolution against him. Green also said he’d make the same protest against Trump’s speech again.
Here’s a draft of the resolution, which is being offered by Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.).
There are a few things to keep in mind here.
1) There’s some thought that this resolution should be privileged. When a resolution is brought up under the privileges of the House, the majority can only delay the vote for two days, but it must schedule a vote. HFC sources tell us they don’t believe that the resolution will reach that threshold, but they’ve been in talks with the House parliamentarian on this over the last few days.
If the resolution isn’t privileged, then the House GOP leadership needs to decide what to do with it.
2) There’s an overwhelming sentiment in Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership that this measure should go away. Top House Republicans feel like they won last week and they don’t need to kick Green off his committee after censuring him.
Plus, there is a chance that some Republicans would vote against this resolution or skip the vote, allowing Democrats to defeat it.
3) If the Crane resolution does come up, you can expect zero Democrats to vote for it, unlike the censure resolution.
In fact, House Democratic leaders are really angry that Republicans are even considering kicking Green off Financial Services. Green’s actions during Trump’s speech had nothing to do with his committee assignment. They’ll go to war to kill this resolution, which they see as a real threat to the future of the institution.
4) Stripping members from their committee assignments for political reasons – we’re talking non-ethics or criminal scandals – is a pretty recent development. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was the first to lose her committee seats in early 2021. That was followed by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) being censured and stripped of his committee seats in Nov. 2021. Last Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee. And then Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the Intelligence Committee in Jan. 2023.
