Republicans vow to strip Green, Democrats who sang in chamber from committees

Several Republicans vowed to strip Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) and the Democrats who sang in the chamber from their committee assignments.

“Today, a group of House Democrats broke decorum during the censure of Rep. Al Green and, after multiple attempts, refused to heed @SpeakerJohnson’s order,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said online. “I am drafting privileged resolutions to remove each of them from their committees.”

“If you want to act like a child in the Halls of Congress, you will be treated like a child,” he said.

Green was censured Thursday after he spoke out at President Trump’s joint address to Congress. He was asked by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to maintain decorum but was later removed from the chamber by the sergeant-at-arms.

Republicans quickly moved to censure Green after the address, and Johnson said he thought the censure vote was an appropriate reaction to the Texas Democrat’s outburst.

“I think this expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy. Many, many of our colleagues have argued it should go even further,” Johnson told reporters just before the vote. “But I hope that he will acknowledge his mistake, and I encourage all the Democrats to join us in this vote.”

The vote was mostly along party lines, with 10 Democrats joining Republicans to censure Green.

As Green stood in the “well” to be censured, some Democrats surrounded him when he began to sing “We Shall Overcome.” The Democrats joined in while Johnson called for decorum.

Ogles said in his post after the vote that there “must be accountability.”

“The American people deserve better than petty, juvenile stunts in one of the most sacred chambers of government,” he said.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said the caucus is filing a resolution to strip “disruptive and disrespectful” Green from his committee assignments.

“We expect @SpeakerJohnson to bring it to the House floor for a vote next week,” Harris said.

The move from Republicans is the latest in support of Trump.

Ogles’s move to make the resolution privileged means he could force House GOP leadership to take action on the measure. It could result in a motion to table the resolution or to refer it to a committee, essentially killing the matter, rather than a vote on the underlying resolution.

Green is the assistant whip for House Democrats. He’s also a member of the Congressional Asian American Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus.

He serves on the House Financial Services Committee, the Homeland Security Committee and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Emily Brooks contributed.