On Monday night, Rep. Nancy Mace told reporters she would oppose a measure kicking Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee. With several other Republicans voicing concerns over the move and some absences this week, the push would be an early test of the Republican whip operation in a slim majority.
Pressure from Republican leaders began building on Mace quickly: As he walked by while Mace spoke to reporters, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise quipped that “after she and I talk,” Mace’s vote might change. Mace brushed off that possibility: “Ha ha, yeah, okay,” she responded to Scalise in an interview with Mychael Schnell of The Hill. “No.”
But the measure ultimately passed with two votes to spare Thursday with Mace’s support. The showdown—and behind-the-scenes deal Mace cut with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—show how the tight Republican majority is forcing GOP leaders to the negotiating table to advance their agenda.
Republican leaders planned to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs because of antisemitic comments she made in 2019. It was also, in part, a response to Democrats: When they controlled the House in the last Congress, Democratic leaders moved to boot GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from their committees for their own controversial statements, a departure from party leaders policing their own members.
Throughout the week, Mace reiterated her opposition to the move. Before lawmakers can be removed from their committees by their fellow members, Mace wants to see heartier due process, such as a path through the Ethics Committee
“We’re saying, because you said something we disagree with, that your opinion is wrong, we’re now just going to arbitrarily kick you off a committee,” Mace said Wednesday. “There’s no due process in that.”
But on Thursday afternoon, when it came to a vote, Mace flipped her position and voted to remove Omar from the panel, helping GOP leaders put the measure over the top.
It was a victory for the House GOP whip team, but Mace also says it was a win for her position: If the deal she made with McCarthy holds, members may have a more defined process and clear standards for future debates about committee membership.
Roughly an hour before the vote on Thursday, Mace met with McCarthy and reached an understanding: McCarthy agreed Mace will advance an effort to amend the House rules “to provide due process and prevent the politicizing of committee removals in the future,” according to a statement Mace released Thursday night.
Her office said it expects a vote on amending the House rules within the next 30 days. Mace’s plan would establish a formal process for questions of committee membership. The Ethics Committee would first investigate such matters, hold hearings, and vote within the committee on how to proceed. Then a full vote on the floor would follow.
It’s theoretically a more robust concession than other Republicans who had concerns about removing Omar from Foreign Affairs secured—but the details will matter, and it’s not yet clear if Republican leaders will hold to this deal or if there will be enough support to pass the rules change on the House floor.
GOP leaders were also able to win over Rep. Victoria Spartz with nonbinding language affirming that Omar is able to appeal the decision to McCarthy. Rep. Ken Buck also ultimately reluctantly supported the resolution after his own reservations, though not without some frustration with McCarthy for bringing it forward in the first place. He was overheard on his way out of the chamber Thursday calling it “the stupidest vote in the world.”
Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho agreed with Buck and added that all it does is make Omar a “martyr,” according to Roll Call.
For her part, Omar already has a new assignment: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday she will be appointed to the Budget Committee.
Lawmakers Advocate for Armenians
My colleague Harvest has a piece on the site today examining an Azerbaijani blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh—also known as Artsakh—a disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The blockade is cutting off food supplies, medicine, and fuel. Azerbaijani leaders have suggested ethnic Armenians who make up most of the area’s inhabitants should simply leave, even as they deny a role in the blockade.
“Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia gained control of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a wider regional conflict that led to 30,000 deaths, millions of displaced people, and continual fighting until a 1994 ceasefire,” Harvest writes. “Fighting erupted again in 2020, killing more than 7,000 combatants and about 170 civilians according to the International Crisis Group.”
Violence briefly broke out again last year, aggravating fears of escalation.
Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California, who represents a district with a large Armenian population, has advocated for an end to U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan and retaliatory sanctions over the blockade.
And on Thursday, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey joined demonstrators outside the Capitol to call for an end to the blockade. He said members of the congressional Armenia Caucus have met with the State Department to ask for more pressure on Azerbaijani leaders, including President Ilham Aliyev.
“We know what’s really going on. We know that Aliyev wants all the Armenians out of Artsakh,” Pallone said. “We know that it is a form of genocide. There’s no question about it.”
Read Harvest’s whole piece here.
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