Since the House of Representatives ended its seven-week recess, lawmakers have been busy voting on resolutions to rebuke their colleagues.
Congress has voted five times on measures to censure other lawmakers since the House reconvened, including Democrats and Republicans going after their own party members.
Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, D-Ill., was reprimanded after he announced his retirement the day after the filing deadline ended to run for his seat, with the only person who filed being his chief of staff. The censure was brought by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.
Republicans tried to censure Del. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, over her contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., proposed a censure of Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who faces a House Ethics Committee investigation.
Both efforts failed, and House leadership worked to block a push to censure or expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., who was recently indicted on fraud charges.
"The only thing we can apparently do is condemn each other," said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis.
"I've not seen the House hit this low of a point since I've been here."
The rebukes caused Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Donald Beyer, D-Va., to propose legislation that would make it harder for House members to target colleagues.
Their proposal would raise the threshold for censuring lawmakers, issuing formal disapproval of their conduct, or removing them from committee assignments, requiring approval from 60% of the House instead of a simple majority.
"The censure process in the House is broken — all of us know it," Bacon and Beyer wrote in a letter to colleagues, warning the constant battles will "inflict lasting damage on this institution."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called the proposal "intriguing," while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he was open to the idea.
From 1983 through 2021, only one lawmaker was censured. Since then, five lawmakers — four Democrats and one Republican — have faced censure, and lawmakers fear the censure battles will continue.
"It's an easy way for an individual member to elevate his or her profile, throw a rock at the other side and force your way onto the floor," said an anonymous House Democrat.
"There doesn't appear to be any kind of mutually assured destruction kind of deterrence on this," the lawmaker added.
"So my guess is it'll just keep going and going and going."
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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