House picks panel to probe vote controversy

Six members of a bipartisan select committee will review the controversial Aug. 2 vote that threw the House into turmoil and caused over 100 Republican members to walk out of the chamber in protest.

According to a source with knowledge of the list of lawmakers, Republican appointees Reps. Kenny Hulshof (Mo), Steven LaTourette (Ohio) and Mike Pence (Ind.) will join Democrats Artur Davis (Ala.), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.) and Bill Delahunt (Mass.) in the investigation of whether the vote was unfairly tallied when it was gaveled.

{mosads}Member offices could not be reached for comment.

The vote at issue was gaveled in favor of the majority even though the minority believed it had won. This allowed Democrats to kill a motion to recommit that would have prevented illegal immigrants from receiving federal funds in the agriculture spending bill.

The select panel was created at the request of Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) who asked that the matter be handled outside of the Democrat-controlled ethics committee.

His privileged resolution offered on Aug. 3 directed the panel to offer an interim report on its findings Sept. 30 and a final report no later than Sept. 15, 2008. In addition, Boehner wants the panel to recommend any necessary changes to House rules to ensure the incident is not repeated.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) originally directed that the matter should be referred to the ethics committee, but when Republicans loudly objected to this suggestion he said “as a gesture of goodwill to the minority” the select committee would be formed.

According to member accounts, Rep. Michael McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled the motion to recommit closed at 214 to 214, when the final vote tally on the board was 213 to 215 after Florida Republican Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen changed their votes from a “no” to a “yes.”

“We went to the front of the House [to change our votes],” Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with The Hill Aug. 3, adding that the board had changed to the count of 213 to 215 in favor of the motion to recommit, and that the gavel went down but McNulty hadn’t seen the change.

“It stayed there for several minutes … then the votes started to change again,” he said, causing the vote to flip. “That’s when there was the meltdown.”

McNulty then announced that the motion had failed 214-214, prompting jeers and shouts from his Republican colleagues.

Acknowledging the confusion, Hoyer called for a revote, causing many GOPers to become irate and storm from the floor accusing Democrats of stealing the vote.

In a speech the next morning, McNulty apologized for the confusion he had inadvertently caused.

“I want to express regret that I gaveled the vote too early,” McNulty said.

Mario Diaz-Balart said of McNulty, “It wasn’t done in malice; that’s why he apologized.”