Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a member of Congress’ far-left Squad, on Saturday allegedly pulled a fire alarm in a House office building to buy fellow Democrats more time to review the GOP’s new stopgap spending bill.

An investigation is now open into why the fire alarm was pulled, according to a post on X from House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil, Wisconsin Republican.

Under D.C. law, people convicted of knowingly or wilfully giving a false alarm of fire within the city can be hit with a misdemeanor fine of up to $100 and imprisonment of up to six months.

Democrats were caught off guard by House Speaker McCarthy’s new 45-day stopgap bill, which includes $16 billion in disaster aid and continues funding the government at the current fiscal year’s levels. The bill was teed up for a floor vote when Democrats began scrambling for more time to decide what to do.

The speaker will need Democratic votes to pass the bill after his previous, hyper-conservative measure failed Friday, but Democrats charged that they needed more time to review the bill.  

• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washigtontimes.com.