House to vote next week on Islamophobia bill, holding Meadows in contempt
By Cristina Marcos and Mike Lillis - 12/09/21 03:23 PM EST
The House is poised to vote next week on a bill authored by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to create a new office within the State Department tasked with combating Islamophobia and vote on a measure to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress, leaders announced Thursday.
House Democratic leaders announced the vote on Omar's bill, scheduled for Tuesday, as they seek ways to respond to Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-Colo.) recent Islamophobic comments suggesting that Omar — one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress — could be a terrorist.
The vote would fall short of progressives’ calls to remove Boebert from her committees, but Democratic leaders are hoping that holding a vote on a bill Omar personally authored will allow the party to present a united front against Islamophobia without going as far as making Boebert the third far-right Republican to be kicked off committees this year.
The House is expected to adjourn later Thursday to accommodate funeral services for former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and won’t return to session until midday Tuesday, when it’s slated to consider the anti-Islamophobia measure, legislation to raise the debt limit a day before the Dec. 15 deadline set by the Treasury Department and a resolution to hold Meadows in contempt for refusing to cooperate with the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), another Muslim lawmaker who’s been leading the negotiations with leadership over a path forward, said those talks are continuing and he’s hoping there’s a stiffer punishment yet to come. “We don’t know yet” if the Omar bill is the final gesture, Carson said Thursday. “We remain hopeful.”
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/585172-house-to-vote-next-week-on-bills-to-denounce-islamophobia-hold-meadows-in
