The Republican-controlled House voted on Thursday to censure Rep. Jamaal Bowman for pulling a fire alarm in a Capitol office building while the chamber was in session—a misdemeanor charge to which the New York Democrat pleaded guilty earlier this fall.
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) introduced the censure resolution on Dec. 5, marking the third time a member has been formally admonished this year. Disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) filed a resolution in late November to expel Bowman from Congress, but it expired when the truth-averse legislator was himself thrown out of office last week. A censure amounts to a public reprimand but does not carry any actual penalty, such as expulsion.
The vote hewed close to party lines, save for three Democrats—Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington—who voted for the measure.
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“It’s painfully obvious to myself, my colleagues and the American people that the Republican Party is deeply unserious and unable to legislate,” Bowman said Wednesday on the House floor. “Their censure resolution against me today continues to demonstrate their inability to govern and serve the American people.”
McClain, for her part, said Bowman triggered the alarm in a bid to “cause chaos” and interrupt lawmakers from “doing [their] business” as they tried furiously to pass a last-minute spending bill.
“While the House was working tirelessly to avert a government shutdown, Representative Bowman was working nefariously to prevent a vote,” McClain said in a statement on Wednesday. “It is reprehensible that a Member of Congress would go to such lengths to prevent House Republicans from bringing forth a vote to keep the government operating and Americans receiving their paychecks. Especially from a former schoolteacher, who without a doubt understands the function and severity of pulling a fire alarm.”
But Bowman has said it was nothing of the sort, explaining that he simply was trying to get through a door he regularly used, but found it locked.
“I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door,” Bowman said in September. “I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused. But I want to be very clear: This was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite—I was trying urgently to get to a vote.”
During a floor debate on Wednesday, Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), a former firefighter, opposed the notion that Bowman’s pulling of the alarm amounted to “a simple mistake.” “He had every opportunity to alert Capitol Police to his mistake, but he chose not to,” Gimenez argued.
At the same time, Democrats panned the censure resolution as a partisan cudgel being misused by Republicans to sideline those they simply don’t like.
“This censure is just the latest in this chamber’s racist history of telling Black men that they don’t belong in Congress,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called the censure measure a “distraction” in the wake of Republicans being “so embarrassed that they propped up George Santos, got him elected to office and then had to turn around and vote to expel him.”
“So they’ve decided to target one of the first Black men to ever represent Westchester County,” she said.
“This is a profoundly stupid resolution,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). “Under Republican control, this chamber has become a place where trivial issues get debated passionately, and important ones not at all. Republicans have focused more on censuring people in this Congress than passing bills that help people we represent or improving this country in any way.”
Bowman said on Wednesday that he never tried to duck accountability for his error, a lesson he always tried to impart in his former life as a middle school principal.
“The number one thing I tried to do… was to teach my students [that] when they made a mistake, they owned up to it,” Bowman said. “That’s exactly what I did.”
Bowman is now the 27th member of Congress to be censured in the legislative body’s history.
