House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters Wednesday that leadership has not ruled out stripping the two centrist Democrats who broke with leadership on Tuesday of their committee assignments.
“We haven’t ruled anything in,” Jeffries said. “We haven’t ruled anything out because it’s a process, and we’re going to follow that process.”
Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) blindsided leadership by voting to bring a package of bills to the House floor, including a GOP-led resolution denouncing socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America. The defections marked a rare occasion of Democratic members breaking from leadership on a procedural measure, which are typically seen as tests of party unity.
Adding insult to injury, the defections came even as GOP hard-liners were ready to paralyze the House over an unrelated dispute with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on funding the government.
Jeffries said he had not met with the members individually to discuss their votes, but that he hoped to do so “at some point soon.”
The minority leader has tasked the Democratic Committee on Caucus Rules to review the matter. Jeffries said he would not “get out ahead of that process,” and looked forward to speaking with Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) about the matter.
JEFFRIES BLINDSIDED AFTER TWO HOUSE DEMOCRATS JOIN GOP TO FORCE VOTE ON DENOUNCING SOCIALISM
The panel met on Wednesday morning, but no repercussions or rules changes have been issued, and Jeffries said he had not received a readout of the meeting yet.
The caucus is reportedly exploring a rules change for Democratic members to prevent future defections, but it’s unclear what such a change would entail or when it would take effect.