The House of Representatives voted in favor of moving forward with a motion to censure New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman for pulling a fire alarm during a floor vote.
A motion to table the resolution failed with a vote of 216-201 with 16 members voting present. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, a ranking member of the ethics panel that investigated the New York representative, voted "present" on the measure.
The motion to censure Bowman was introduced on Tuesday by Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain, who filed the motion as a privileged resolution requiring the House to vote within two-legislative days.
"Nobody is above the law, Congressmen included," McClain wrote of the measure in a Tuesday X post.
A final vote on the measure may take place as soon as Thursday after the House debates the resolution.
McClain elaborated on her resolution and said "Actions must be met with consequences."
The Michigan representative said Bowman's move to pull the fire alarm to "curtail an act of Congress" was "unacceptable" and illegal.
"For that, he must stand before Congress and accept Censure," she wrote.
The New York representative commented on the measure to censure him during Wednesday's debate on McClain's resolution.
“Unfortunately, Republicans are here trying to rehash an already litigated matter, a matter in which the Republican-controlled House committee of ethics decided to not proceed with any further investigation,” Bowman said during debate on the censure resolution. “This is an insult to the people I was elected to represent.”
Bowman said Republicans were using the measure to waste government resources "instead of passing meaningful legislation for the American people.”
"And to make you forget about all the rights they want to destroy," he added and claimed abortion, voting rights, health care, social security, and medicare were on the chopping block for his political opponents. "House Democrats have been trying to focus on and address the issues American people care about."
Bowman previously apologized for pulling the fire alarm, though denied the incident was to delay House proceedings. “Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open. I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door,” he said in the late-September apology. “I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused.” “But I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote,” Bowman continued, per The Daily Wire. “It was the exact opposite – I was trying urgently to get to a vote, which I ultimately did and joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to keep our government open.”
