House GOP raps energy impasse

Cites constituents' demands for action now

By Sean Lengell (Contact) | Monday, August 11, 2008

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House Republicans say they will continue to interrupt their summer break this week to hold daily protests at the Capitol in their ongoing push to expand domestic oil drilling, insisting the "American people are with us."

"My constituents are wondering, 'Why isn't the Congress back in session, dealing with the energy crisis?'" Ohio said at a Republican news conference Friday outside the House chamber.

"We're here, and we're going to continue to be here, day after day, until the speaker calls us back, because that's what our constituents are demanding," he said.

Republicans - upset that Democratic leaders adjourned for a five-week recess without holding a vote to expand drilling - have been staging daily protest speeches on the House floor to demand that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, call the House back into session to work on an energy plan.

The protest began minutes after the House adjourned Aug. 1, when a few dozen Republicans refused to leave the chamber. From Monday through Friday, Republican leaders rotated 10 to 20 members to the Capitol each day for several hours of floor speeches.

Because the House isn't in session and the speeches aren't considered formal legislative business, the protests aren't televised on Capitol Hill staffers who venture inside the chamber, which remains open to the public through the summer.

To give visitors a better view, Republicans have opened the chamber floor to the public, which normally is restricted to the balcony.

Although the chamber lights are dimmed, the microphones muted and the cameras shuttered, the Republicans say their message is spreading and that their populist-styled "talk-a-thons" are resonating with voters at home.

"I just returned from the farm fields of Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican.

Former Georgia Republican, has lent his support, appearing with the protesting lawmakers at a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday.

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