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Here's Where We Stand on House Censure, Expulsion Votes

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  November 01, 2023 9:00 AM

This article has been updated to reflect press releases from Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) providing floor updates and efforts from fellow New York House Republicans to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY).

The House could vote as soon as Wednesday to censure Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY). It's now been a week since Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was selected for the role, with much to be done in the House. As the House considers priorities such as funding Ukraine and Israel, as well as such resolutions, Fox News' Chad Pergram posted an update about the latter on Wednesday morning.

A "Whip Floor Update" from Majority Whip Tom Emmer's (R-MN) office later spoke to a timeline of approximately 6:30pm on Wednesday night on the resolutions to censure Tlaib and Greene. The House will also consider the resolution to expel Santos in the afternoon.

Greene filed a resolution to censure Tlaib for anti-semitic remarks and encouraging the pro-Hamas activists that stormed the Cannon House building last week after she gave remarks doubling down on lies about Israel. Tlaib had claimed and tripled down on the narrative that Israeli rockets hit a hospital in Gaza, despite intelligence confirming it was misfired terrorist rockets. She didn't update her X post until over a week later, and has been defiant against action she says makes her feel "policed." She's also categorized the censure as "deeply Islamophobic."

It's not only fellow Democrats--especially those also in the Squad members--and mainstream media pundits like CNN's Jake Tapper defending Tlaib. It's also some Republican House members doing so, as Guy has highlighted.

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Because it was Greene who filed the resolution against Tlaib, Democrats are going for a tit-for-tat here. Rep. Becca Blint (D-VT) filed a resolution back in July to censure Greene, ranting off a whole list of grievances. The Republican congresswoman was dismissive of the effort, highlighting Blint's freshman status and calling the resolution "some ridiculous stunt."

The House isn't merely considering motions to censure colleagues, though. Santos' fellow New York Republicans are are looking to expel the embattled member.

But, as another post from Pergram also noted, the House Ethics Committee could complicate that. They've been investigating Santos for several months, with that announcement coming in February, approximately a month after the 118th Congress began. The committee put out a statement on Tuesday night indicating that they'll take action on Santos by or before November 17, still over two weeks away.

POLITICO's Wednesday morning Playbook also addressed the possible expulsion as part of their "3 things to watch..."

As they mention:

The effort to expel Rep. GEORGE SANTOS from the House led by his fellow New York Republicans could come to a head later today, but not before an unusual push from the House Ethics Committee to head things off, at least temporarily. The panel yesterday issued an unusual statement noting that its members and staff “have put countless hours into this investigation,” issuing 37 subpoenas and reviewing more 170,000 pages of documents. It did not explicitly counsel lawmakers to lay off but promised to say more about Santos no later than Nov. 17, leaving a clear implication: Please wait.

Both Pergram and Playbook highlighted the ramifications that the statement from the Ethics Committee could have, with the latter referring to it as "an unusual push" and the statement itself being called "unusual." As the newsletter also put it, it "leav[es] a clear implication: Please wait."

As a CBS News report from last week mentioned:

Santos faces an arraignment court proceeding on the newest charges Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York.

The expulsion resolution was announced last week by two of Santos' fellow Long Island Republicans, Reps. Anthony D'Esposito and Nick Lalota. D'Esposito said he expected the measure would catch on "like wildfire" among fellow House members, in light of the newest allegations.  

On Oct. 10, the Justice Department announced the new federal charges against the congressman. Prosecutors said Santos is being charged with identity theft, making charges on his own donors' credit cards without their authorization, "lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign." Santos allegedly "falsely inflated the campaign's reported receipts with nonexistent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen," prosecutors said.

...

An expulsion resolution requires a two-thirds vote of the entire House. The measure does not need to go through a time-consuming committee process to reach a floor vote.

On Wednesday, Reps. D'Esposito and Lalota signed onto a letter urging colleagues to support their resolution, a letter that was also signed onto by fellow New York Republican Reps. Marc Molinaro, Brandon Williams, and Mike Lawler.

On Monday, the day before the House Ethics Committee released their statement, Santos issued a post to his political X account, reading in part "I will not beg for my constitutional rights" and "I will let my colleagues make their decision without my interference."

Even with the House once more having a speaker, it looks as if inner workings and potentially Republicans still in disarray if some decide not to censure Tlaib, could get in the way with the House moving further in such endeavors.