Gohmert threatening to hold up House coronavirus bill

A conservative lawmaker is threatening to delay the House’s efforts to send an emergency coronavirus bill to the Senate, according to House aides working on the proposal.

Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) wants a series of technical corrections to the House-passed bill — fixes still being negotiated Monday — to be read on the House floor before he’ll let it move to the upper chamber, according to House aides representing both parties.

“He’s concerned and wants all of the changes to be made public before the vote,” one GOP aide with knowledge of the situation told The Hill.

Gohmert’s strategy, first reported by Politico, has threatened to prevent House leaders from using unanimous consent procedures to adopt the technical fixes once they’re finalized, since any single lawmaker has the power to block bills from passing by unanimous consent. If Gohmert declines to budge, it would require a vote of the full House to overcome the blockade — no easy task, because the House recessed on Saturday and many lawmakers have left Washington for their districts.

Gohmert’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. But a second GOP aide said the Texas firebrand is not expected to block the House package — if chamber leaders agree to the public reading he’s insisting upon.

“Gohmert isn’t likely to object unless there’s a strong resistance in the Senate to what’s being done,” another GOP aide with knowledge said. “Which I doubt there will be.”

Behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Democrats are working Monday on technical fixes to a sweeping legislative package designed to ease the financial stress on coronavirus victims. The package features an expansion of unemployment insurance and an extension of paid leave and food security provisions to help low-income children who might otherwise miss meals due to school closures.

That proposal was passed by the House just after midnight on Saturday morning, but technical glitches have forced the negotiators — Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — into subsequent talks to amend certain language before delivering the bill to the Senate.

A Democratic leadership aide said those fixes have not been finalized, but suggested updates would be forthcoming Monday afternoon.

The Senate, meanwhile, has canceled its previously scheduled recess to consider the House coronavirus package, though it’s unclear when the upper chamber will consider the proposal. The Senate is first scheduled to take up a government surveillance bill, a vote expected Monday evening, and Senate GOP leaders are facing pressure from within their conference to amend the House coronavirus legislation out of concerns that it’s too hard on small businesses.