Pat Dollard | Young Americans

WAPO:

WASHINGTON — House Democrats apologized Friday for wrestling what appeared to be a winning vote away from Republicans Thursday night.

Republicans continued to steam, however, over the episode in which they appeared to be the winners by a 215-213 tally on a procedural motion designed to make sure illegal immigrants would not get certain benefits from an agriculture spending bill.

Instead, with several lawmakers milling in the well of the House registering votes, Rep. Michael McNulty, D-N.Y., gaveled the vote to a close, saying the GOP measure had failed on a 214-214 tie.

Republicans erupted, chanting “shame, shame, shame,” and then walked out in protest after McNulty permitted further Democrats to switch their votes to prevail 216-212. Despite winning that tally, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., moved for a revote as permitted under the rules, and Democrats prevailed again.

On Friday, Hoyer apologized. “The minority was understandably angry,” he said.

The heavy-handed tactics capped a partisan week in the chamber, and Hoyer and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, promised to try to work out some accommodation.

Still, rank-and-file Republicans remained furious and the brouhaha led the House to recess for a while Friday morning, before returning to debate assorted legislation, including a bill to aid in rebuilding the collapsed bridge in Minneapolis.

Democrats changed House rules in January to disallow the practice of holding votes open to affect the outcome. The new rule came after Republicans routinely held open votes to twist arms, including a 2003 episode on the Medicare prescription drug bill in which Republicans held a vote open for three hours until finally prevailing.

“Never once did we in the majority attempt to steal a vote,” Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Friday.

The stakes on the issue involved Thursday were far smaller. Democrats had routinely accepted comparable language on illegal immigrants on other spending bills, but the agriculture measure was being debated under fast-track conditions denying Republicans a chance to offer the provision.

Later Friday, the House’s electronic voting machines went haywire, causing leaders to agree to a recess so that they could be fixed.

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If lawmakers try to go on vacation this weekend without updating a law governing U.S. eavesdropping on foreigners, one option for President Bush would be to call them back.

Bush said Friday he wanted Congress members to put off their August recess until they have passed the legislation. And although aides said it shouldn’t come to this, they noted that the Constitution gives Bush authority to call Congress into session.

He wouldn’t be the first president to haul lawmakers back to the Capitol.

According to the Senate Historical Office, presidents have called both the Senate and the House into “extraordinary” session 23 times, on such matters as war, economic crisis and crucial domestic legislation.

The first president to do so was John Adams in 1797, to suspend relations with France. The most recent was Harry Truman, who called Congress back into session in 1947 and 1948 to deal with domestic legislation.

Other notables: James Madison called Congress back during the War of 1812; Abraham Lincoln recalled lawmakers to deal with the secession of Southern states. And Franklin Roosevelt summoned Congress for the beginning of the New Deal.

Article II, Section3 of the Constitution provides that the president “may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them.”

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