‘Is He Coming Back?!’ GOP Senator Baffled By Dem Ditching Hearing Immediately After Objection
· Yahoo NewsConfusion hit Capitol Hill on Sunday when Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) proposed a resolution that would block senators from receiving paychecks during the ongoing partial government shutdown — and all future shutdowns.
His resolution was met with a swift objection from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), who apparently scrambled out of the U.S. Capitol immediately after. The rest of the lawmakers looked perplexed by his dash, with the C-SPAN feed capturing a grip of senators turning their heads to watch him leave the building.
Kennedy looked especially baffled by the abrupt exit.
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“With respect, I want to give my colleague Senator Schatz more time. He objected and left the chamber. Is he coming back?!” Kennedy asked. “Is he ill? What should I do?”
No one had an answer for him. Kennedy turned his left palm upward and held it there off-and-on for several minutes.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) then asked whether it was kosher for a senator to object and then “run out.”
“An objection was raised and an objection was heard,” Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) said.
Here is how Kennedy explained his resolution before Schatz ditched the hearing:
It would change senate rules to provide that when we are in a shutdown, that senators cannot be paid, cannot receive their salaries. Their checks would be — think of it this way… locked in a vault. And once the shutdown is over, the senators could pick them up.
Kennedy made a similar proposal last fall. He raised it again on Sunday as the current shutdown hit its 36th day — which has led President Donald Trump to deploying ICE agents to airports nationwide on Monday to help alleviate long security lines.
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He continued to stand for several more minutes, and got into a fairly amusing exchange with Banks while he was at it. Banks said he cannot “opine on why a senator is or is not in the chamber.”
“Can you opine on why my colleague objected and then immediately left? And whether he’s coming back?” Kennedy asked.
“Uh, not an appropriate parliamentary inquiry,” Banks told him.
Unfortunately, the cameras did not capture Schatz hustling out of the chamber.
Watch above via CSPAN Networks.
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