Rep. Thomas Massie Slams Democrats’ Attempt to Pass $19 Billion Disaster Aid Bill as ‘Legislative Malpractice’

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) slammed House Democrats’ attempt to pass a $19.1 billion disaster aid package on Tuesday without a recorded vote as “legislative malpractice.”

Massie objected to the Senate-passed disaster aid package during a voice vote and demanded that the House vote on the legislation after it returned from recess next week, which makes it unlikely that President Donald Trump will sign the legislation before early June.

“If the speaker of this House felt that this was must-pass legislation, the speaker of this House should have called a vote on this legislation before sending its members on recess for ten days, and I object,” Massie said Tuesday.

“To pass a $19 billion bill like this without a recorded vote is legislative malpractice,” Massie told reporters Tuesday.

Massie became the second House conservative to block the disaster aid bill. Last week, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) blocked a unanimous consent vote late Friday before the Memorial Day weekend because the bill lacked any humanitarian or border security funding for the migrant crisis on America’s southern border.

Roy cheered Massie’s move to block the disaster aid bill on Tuesday, saying, “Today, my colleague @RepThomasMassie objected. The American people are working. We should, too. For the second time, @SpeakerPelosi tried to jam through a $19 billion bill that is not paid for without members present. The American people deserve to know how their reps vote.”

“I’m here today primarily because if I do not object, Congress will have passed into law a bill that spends $19 billion of taxpayer money without members of Congress being present in our nation’s Capitol to vote on it,” Roy said on the House floor last Friday.

“Secondly, it’s a bill that includes nothing to address the clear national emergency and humanitarian crisis we have at our southern border,” Roy added.