The House is set to vote on a GOP-led resolution Thursday to censure Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York for triggering a fire alarm in a House office building when there was not an emergency.
Censure amounts to a significant rebuke of a member of Congress, though it does not carry an explicit penalty beyond a public admonition of a lawmaker and is not as severe as expulsion.
Censure is typically a rare move by lawmakers, but Republicans have led efforts to censure two other Democrats since June. Bowman would be the third censured since the GOP took control of the chamber.
Bowman was caught on tape pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building in late September, shortly before the House was scheduled to vote on a government funding bill. The building was subsequently evacuated. The congressman said following the incident that it had been an accident.
“I was trying to get to a door. I thought the alarm would open the door, and I pulled the fire alarm to open the door by accident,” Bowman said at the time, adding: “I was just trying to get to my vote and the door that’s usually open wasn’t open, it was closed.”
In October, Bowman was charged by the DC attorney general over the incident and subsequently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for falsely triggering a fire alarm in a House office building.
Republican Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan put forward the resolution to censure Bowman, saying on X, “Nobody is above the law, Congressmen included.”
According to the resolution, if the House votes to censure Bowman he must present himself in the well of the House where they will read out the censure notice.
“Representative Jamaal Bowman will forth with present himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure,” the resolution states.
Bowman and…
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