Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) has filed a motion to try to force Speaker John Boehner from his leadership post.
The action, called a motion to vacate the chair, represents a new level of opposition to the Ohio Republican’s speakership from the conservative wing. However the motion, which was filed late Tuesday afternoon, can be easily disregarded by supporters of Boehner in its current form.
Sources say Meadows will circulate a so-called discharge petition to force a vote on the motion. But if he wanted a vote in the next two legislative days, he could simply stand up and ask for one. If he did that, the motion would be considered “privileged,” which would make it the immediate business of the House. In its current form, Meadows’ motion is simply a statement of opposition to Boehner.
Meadows, a second-term Republican, is a founding member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He often bucks GOP leadership, and a committee chairman — with Boehner’s support — recently tried to strip him of a subcommittee chairmanship. Meadows won that internal party skirmish.
House Republican leadership was completely surprised by Meadows’ move.
Meadows and Boehner have not had a good relationship. GOP leaders consider him an agitator, and Boehner has told colleagues that in 2013, Meadows dropped to his knees to beg the speaker for forgiveness for taking part in discussions about trying to oust the speaker.
A House speaker has never been ousted through a motion to vacate the chair. Still, the move represents a new level of angst between Republican leaders and the conservative rank-and-file. It’s the first time someone has tried to actively oust Boehner in the middle of a a two-year congressional session.
The resolution, obtained by POLITICO, states that Boehner has tried to “consolidate power and centralize decision-making, bypassing the majority of the 435 members of Congress and the people they represent.” It accuses the speaker of using the “legislative calendar to create crises for the American people, in order to compel members to vote for legislation.”
The “Speaker has, through inaction, caused the power of Congress to atrophy, thereby making Congress subservient to the Executive and Judicial branches, diminishing the voice of the American People,” it reads. “Whereas the Speaker uses the power of the office to punish Members who vote according to their conscience instead of the will of the Speaker.”
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But Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), who has repeatedly voted against Boehner, said there’s a lot of “dissatisfaction with the leadership.”
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http://www.politico.com/story/2015/0...er-120742.html
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