Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security panel, stormed out of a committee markup on the Fire Grants and Safety Act on Wednesday after clashing with Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) on amendments.
Peters, the committee’s chairman, attempted to use procedural tactics that would block Democrats on the committee from voting on Republican amendments to the bill. Peters also offered second-degree amendments to the Republican proposals, which essentially erased the conservative suggestions.
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“If this is the way you’re going to run the committee, I would suggest that Republicans leave,” Paul said, according to the Hill. “I don’t see why we should stick around if you’re going to make up the rules.”
Despite Paul’s urging for his fellow Republicans on the committee to leave the room with him, the other members, Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), and James Lankford (R-OK), stayed behind to vote against the Democratic modifications to the bills.
One of the amendments Paul offered would make any fire department that fired its employees for refusing the COVID-19 vaccination ineligible for federal grants unless they reinstated those officers back with back pay. But Peters substituted the amendment by requiring the United States comptroller general to audit and report on barriers that prevented fire departments from accessing grants. Peters’s suggestion was approved along party lines.
Another one of Paul’s amendments suggested a block on National Institute of Health funding that went to China to fund “gain of function” research on coronaviruses. But Peters suggested that the block instead stop NIH funding from going to Chinese fire departments.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Paul said in response. “This is legislative legerdemain to obscure the fact that you’re trying to not vote directly on this.”
Another argument broke out when Paul attempted to add a second-degree amendment to his own amendment, which would block Peters from adding a second-degree amendment. But Peters told him that he could not call up a second-degree amendment because he did not have jurisdiction.
“You can’t call it up, senator, only the chair,” Peters said. “You weren’t recognized to call it for a vote. Only the chairman can do that. The chair can call up the amendments as the chair sees fit.”
The room got so tense that at one point, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) suggested that everyone take a break to calm down.
“There’s no need for us to turn this committee hearing into a partisan, ugly place like we’ve seen in other committees,” Sinema said.
Lankford later said that the exchange was not common for the Homeland Security panel, and he sympathized with Paul’s frustration.
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“Typically in that committee, we just have votes,” Lankford said. “When we can’t work it out behind the scenes, we have a vote and not replace someone’s vote. We got to actually take votes.”
Paul became the committee’s ranking member earlier this year after former Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) retired. Portman served as the panel’s ranking member from 2021 to 2022. The panel is not typically as divided either, with panelists from both parties mixed together, instead of staying on their respective sides of the dais.
