House censures Bowman for falsely pulling fire alarm
by Mychael Schnell - 12/07/23 10:56 AM ET
House Republicans censured Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) on Thursday after he falsely pulled a fire alarm in a House office building in September, hitting the New York Democrat with a congressional reprimand that liberals derided as “extreme” and “profoundly stupid.”
The chamber voted 214-191-5, mostly along party lines, on the resolution to censure Bowman. Three Democrats voted with all present Republicans in favor of the censure.
The public rebuke came more than two months after Bowman — during a high-stakes vote to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30 — falsely pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building, triggering an evacuation.
The New York Democrat was charged with a misdemeanor on Oct. 25 and pleaded guilty the next day. He entered an agreement with prosecutors that requires him to write an apology to Capitol Police and pay a $1,000 fine. Last month, the House Ethics Committee said it declined to launch an investigation into the incident.
Republicans accused Bowman of intentionally pulling the fire alarm in an attempt to delay the vote on the government funding bill. Then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) unveiled the “clean” continuing resolution earlier that day and quickly scheduled a vote on the measure — leaving Democrats little time to read the legislation. Democratic leadership had deployed stall tactics to buy the caucus more time to parse the bill.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4347631-bowman-censure-fire-alarm/