A House Democrat filed a privileged resolution that would force the Ethics Committee to release its ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), using a procedural tool that would force GOP leadership to bring the motion to the floor within two legislative days.
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) filed the resolution on Wednesday evening shortly after the Ethics Committee failed to come to a consensus on whether to publish the findings of its yearslong investigation. The committee met for more than two hours behind closed doors to deliberate but no decision was made, according to committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS).
But before that decision was announced, Casten threatened he would take action even if the panel didn’t — putting Republicans on the clock to bring the motion to the floor.
“The allegations against Matt Gaetz are serious,” Casten said in a statement. “They are credible. The House Ethics Committee has spent years conducting a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of it. This information must be made available for the Senate to provide its constitutionally required advice and consent.”
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A privileged resolution would force a vote on the matter within two legislative days, meaning lawmakers may not consider the matter until they return after Thanksgiving. Casten’s threat comes just one day after he led 97 House Democrats in a letter demanding the release of the report.
GOP leaders could try to shoot down the measure by introducing a motion to table, dismissing it altogether. But if that fails, it will be voted on by the entire House and only four Republicans would need to join all Democrats in supporting the measure.
Rep. Marcus Molinaro (R-NY) told the Washington Examiner that he would vote to table the motion.
“I would vote to table it. I think, I mean, if you could bottle gossip, rumor in innuendo and sell it, we would have no national deficit,” Molinaro said. “I think that we should let the President make his appointment. Make his appointments, allow the Senate to conduct its review and consent, and rather than dabbling in what we think things are, we should allow actual facts to govern the outcome.”