Scoop: Exasperated House members want to make it harder to censure each other

""I am in camp 'shut this shit down,'" Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) told Axios of the growing use of censure. "We'll spend the next year censuring each other. It's bullshit. We need due process." House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Axios he is "open" to a discussion about raising the threshold. "We don't want this to become commonplace," Johnson said. "It should be an extreme measure for extreme cases.""

""Currently the House only needs a simple majority to censure, and any member can force it to a vote. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) is in the process of gathering support to raise that threshold, Axios has learned. "I've been circulating legislation ... to move it to 60%," the Virginia Democrat told Axios in an interview at the Capitol, saying he thinks "we're just using it as a partisan tool, which I hate." Beyer said some of his colleagues want to go even further and make it a two-thirds majority, which is currently the threshold to expel a member of Congress. A Beyer spokesperson told Axios the idea was "back-burnered earlier this year" but that they "picked it back up this week for obvious reasons.""

House members are debating raising the threshold needed to censure a colleague to prevent routine, partisan censures. A bipartisan vote referred Rep. Cory Mills to the Ethics Committee over allegations he denies, and the Ethics Committee announced an investigation shortly before the referral vote. Some members, including Rep. Don Beyer, are circulating proposals to require 60% or even two-thirds support to censure. Speaker Mike Johnson said raising the threshold is open to discussion to keep censure for extreme cases. Critics say current practices risk frequent, politicized punishments and demand due process.

Read at Axios