by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 22, 2024) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA14) submitted a Resolution “Declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant” following the chamber’s passage of a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill approximately 12 hours before certain parts of the federal government would have closed for lack of funding.
According to The New York Times, 101 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, indicating it did not have the support of the majority of the caucus.
The Senate will have to pass the 1,000+-page bill prior to midnight Friday to avert the shutdown and just prior to both congressional chambers’ anticipated adjournment for 16 days.
There are expenditures in the bill desirable to both Democrats and Republicans, The Times reported. On the Democrat side, funding includes $200 million for the “new” FBI headquarters, “a combined $1 billion in new funding for federal child care and education programs, and a $120 million increase in funding for cancer research” and “earmarked funding requested by senators for L.G.B.T.Q. centers.” Republicans realized a 25% increase in funds for technology on the southern border, a decrease in State Department funding and “a provision cutting off aid to the main U.N. agency that provides assistance to Palestinians.”
For his part, Speaker Johnson said the bill “represents the best achievable outcome in a divided government,” according to The Times.
In a statement after the House adjourned, Greene, or “MTG,” as she is often called, told reporters her Resolution is “more of a warning than a pink slip” which seeks to “find a new Speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority instead of standing with the Democrats.”
“I respect our conference; I paid all my dues to my conference; I’m a member in good standing, and I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House in chaos,” she said, indicating she will not attempt to bring the Resolution to the floor immediately. “There’s not a time limit on this…I don’t want to put any of our members in a difficult place like we were for 3 1/2 weeks…,” a reference to the situation which arose in early October after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.
“We’re going to continue our committee work; we’re going to continue our investigations,” Greene added.
Clarifying the Resolution’s status, MTG told a reporter, “It’s filed but not voted on.”
Prior to the vote on the House floor, MTG claimed the bill is a betrayal of the Republican conference’s tenets.
“No Republican in the House of Representatives in good conscious [sic] can vote for this bill,” she said. “It is a complete departure of all of our principles, especially if you call yourself ‘pro-life.’ This bill funds full-term abortion. This is not a Republican bill; this is a Chuck Schumer, Democrat-controlled bill coming from the House majority that is supposed to be controlled by Republicans…”
“It is the will of our voters and it is the will of Republicans across the country that this bill should not be brought to the floor, that this bill will absolutely destroy our majority and will tell every single one of our voters that this majority is a failure,” she continued. “This is the bill that the White House cannot wait to sign into law. This is the bill that rips our border wide open and tells every single person in over 160 countries around the world they can invade our country, they can run over our Border Patrol, they can run over our Texas National Guard…,” a reference to an incident Thursday in which more than 100 illegal aliens broke through a border fence in El Paso, TX, overwhelming Texas National Guardsmen stationed there by order of Gov. Greg Abbott.
MTG further decried that House members did not have time to read the bill in its entirety given its unveiling only yesterday.
A complete vote tally is here. Rep. Ken Buck, whose last day in Congress is Friday, voted against it.