Representative Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) is under threat of investigation and expulsion, after he pulled a fire alarm in a House office building in the lead up to a contentious vote.
Bowman pulled a fire alarm on the second floor of the Cannon House Office Building on Saturday, just before the House was set for a tumultuous vote on the stopgap spending bill. The bill passed the House on Saturday, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. The building was evacuated after Bowman activated the alarm.
Although Bowman said he was just “rushing to make an urgent vote, and “did not realize he would trigger a building alarm,” Republicans speculate that Bowman intentionally pulled the alarm to delay the vote.
Nicole Malliotakis (R., N.Y.) issued a resolution for Bowman’s expulsion from Congress, saying, “This is the United States Congress, not a New York City high school.” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said the House Ethics Committee should investigate the incident, and the House Administration Committee Republicans said Saturday that an investigation was already underway. The Capitol Police are also investigating the incident.
If Bowman pulled the fire alarm to disrupt House voting procedure, Bryan Steil (R., Wis.) said, it would be a “serious violation of the law.” Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) called on the Department of Justice to prosecute Bowman “using the same law they used to prosecute [January 6] defendants for interfering with an official proceeding,” adding that, “The Democrats literally will do anything to shut our government down.”
“This should not go without punishment. This is embarrassing,” McCarthy said at a press conference. “You’re elected to be a member of Congress — you pull a fire alarm in the minutes and hours before the government being shut down, trying to dictate the government would shut down?”
Bowman said in a statement on Saturday evening that he was not “trying to delay any vote.”
“It was the exact opposite,” he said. “I was trying urgently to get to a vote, which I ultimately did and joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to keep our government open. I also met after the vote with the Sergeant at Arms and the Capitol Police, at their request, and explained what had happened.”