Motions to vacate introduced or voted on in US history

October 08, 2023 03:00 AM

For the first time in United States history, the speaker of the House was ousted after eight House Republicans and all Democrats voted to vacate the speakership Tuesday.

While Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) removal as speaker was historic, it was not the first time that a motion to vacate was brought against a speaker. Until Tuesday, there had not been a vote to vacate the speaker’s chair since 1910, nor had one ever been successful.

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Despite only two attempts to vacate, here are the instances in which a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair was introduced, voted on, or considered.

FDR — President Franklin D. Roosevelt is shown receiving applause after signing the Muscle Shoals Bill, May 18, 1933. Behind him, from left, are: Rep. John J. McSwain of South Carolina; Sen. Kenneth D. McKellar of Tennessee; Rep. Samuel Davis McReynolds of Tennessee; Reps. William Bacon Oliver and Lister Hill, both of Alabama; and Sen. George William Norris of Nebraska, author of the bill. (AP Photo)

1910 – former House Speaker Joseph Cannon (Voted on – Failed)

In 1910, Rep. George Norris used a motion to vacate against former House Speaker Joseph Cannon. Cannon was referred to as the “supreme dictator of the Old Guard” in Time magazine’s first issue when he retired from Congress in 1923.

Back in that time, the speaker of the House made all appointments to congressional committees and chairs of committees, controlled the Rules Committee and what bills headed to the House floor for a vote, and held the “power of recognition” that gave the speaker the power to control who spoke on the House floor, according to the Bill of Rights Institute.

Norris, whom Cannon denied a spot on the House Judiciary Committee, disliked Cannon, and like other progressive Republicans at the time, he thought the concentration of power was too great.

The Nebraska representative waited for a day when all of the Republican “regulars,” or defenders of party loyalty, were out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Norris believed he could swing a vote on a resolution to strip the speaker’s powers.

However, Cannon stalled the vote on the resolution by having his supporters sing on the floor or go into bars to find his supporters. The sergeant-at-arms was ordered by the House, after a vote that favored the resolution, to arrest absent members and bring them back to the Capitol for a vote on the resolution itself. But the sergeant-at-arms instead asked members to arrive voluntarily and arrested none.

Norris’s resolution was finally voted on and passed 191 to 156, stripping Cannon of his powers. A motion to vacate was later brought up by a Democrat from Texas, as Cannon wanted to prove a point and test progressive Republicans’ loyalty to the party. The motion to vacate Cannon failed 155 to 192 after Republicans, like Norris, would not risk the ascension of a Democratic speaker.

Congress Debt Ceiling — FILE – House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks to the floor to vote on a plan to raise the debt ceiling on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 1, 2011. Lessons learned from the debt ceiling standoff more than a decade ago are rippling through Washington. Back in 2011 the debate around raising the debt ceiling was eerily familiar. Newly elected House Republicans were eager to confront the Democratic president and force spending cuts. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

2015 – former House Speaker John Boehner (Filed)

One hundred and five years later, Mark Meadows, who later went on to become the White House chief of staff under former President Donald Trump, filed a motion to vacate former House Speaker John Boehner in July 2015 when he was a representative from North Carolina.

Meadows said he filed the motion to force a “family conversation” among Republicans on the course of congressional leadership following a series of conflicts between Boehner’s team and a handful of conservatives. He added that he hoped the motion would never come to a vote.

While a motion to vacate can be highly privileged under House rules if made on the floor, Meadows instead filed the motion as a resolution, sending it to committee rather than directly to the floor for a vote. It was filed without any co-sponsors.

At the time, Meadows had recently been stripped of his position as chairman of the oversight and government reform subcommittee after voting against a leadership-backed procedural vote on trade legislation, according to the Washington Post.

Republicans at the time worried that filing the motion just before summer recess would interfere with their position on opposing the Iran nuclear deal, instead turning people’s focus to intraparty disputes.

In September 2015, Boehner ultimately stepped down as speaker before a vote on the motion to vacate was called. Before Boehner’s resignation, no House speaker since Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., who held the gavel from 1977 to 1986, had left the job willingly.

Many thought McCarthy, the Republican majority leader at the time, would take the gavel, but Paul Ryan succeeded Boehner after he left the speakership in October 2015.

Georgia Election Investigation — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at an America First Policy Institute agenda summit in Washington, July 26, 2022.

1997 – former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Considered)

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was threatened with a motion to vacate following an ethics violation. He was reprimanded after using a tax-exempt organization for political purposes and providing false information to the House Ethics Committee.

While a motion to vacate was never filed, his ethics investigation and the poor showing by Republicans in the 1998 congressional elections led to his resignation as speaker on Nov. 6, 1998. He resigned from the House altogether on Jan. 3, 1999.

2023 – former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Voted on – Passed)

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made the motion to vacate after accusing McCarthy of making a “back deal” with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government temporarily, which he says is in direct violation of the speakership agreement brokered in January.

McCarthy’s 216-210 ouster was led by members of his right flank. The Republicans who voted to oust McCarty include Gaetz and Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Ken Buck (R-CO), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Bob Good (R-VA), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Nancy Mace (R-SC).

House Democrats held a heavy hand in the vote, and the party voted together as a conference to oust McCarthy. Several party members said ahead of the vote they weren’t interested in helping Republicans sort out their intraparty tensions, and they cited a deep mistrust of McCarthy as part of that decision.

“We’re not here to keep Kevin McCarthy in power. This is their problem,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) said Tuesday before the vote.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) will serve as speaker pro tempore until a new speaker is selected.

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McCarthy made concessions to rank-and-file conservatives during the speakership vote, one of which was allowing any single lawmaker (Democratic or Republican) to bring a “motion to vacate the chair.” Before the change, a member would need to get a majority of their party in support of the motion in order to move it forward.

The California representative announced late Tuesday evening that he would not run for speaker again. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) have announced they are running for the speakership.