A U.S. congressman pulled a fire alarm inside the Capitol this weekend right before the House was set to vote on a spending bill in hopes of avoiding a government shutdown.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) copped to the apparent delay tactic Saturday … with a rep from his office saying, “Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote. The Congressman regrets any confusion.”
Capitol Police released a photo to the public, which appears to show Bowman pulling down the lever … which obviously set off a siren in the building and evacuation to follow. He’s now under investigation for the stunt — which Republicans are slamming as unpatriotic.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he was appalled that Dems would resort to something like this … accusing them as a party of trying to force the federal government into a freeze.
Now, as for the actual vote itself … it eventually continued, and a bill proposed by House Republicans actually got enough votes to pass — which will now get kicked over to the Senate. They gotta vote on it soon … come midnight, the shutdown goes into effect.
The bill — which was voted in as a bipartisan, 45-day stopgap — has a lot of disaster relief funding in it … but no extra cash for Ukraine, which is something Dems were seeking.
The White House says this House bill should do the trick for now, but they expect McCarthy to bring a separate bill “shortly” to address the Ukraine issue. Time will tell if he does.
If the Senate fails to pass the House’s bill, we’ll go into a shutdown until Congress reconvenes on Monday. A prolonged shutdown is no bueno for federal workers, not to mention the economy at large. It’s happened before, and it could well happen again.
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