WASHINGTON – Today, Ranking Republican Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Republicans motioned to adjourn from a scheduled Committee markup when Democrats pushed a partisan agenda and failed to show up. Once again, a Chairman Grijalva markup was stripped of legislation capable of becoming law and instead, stuffed with partisan bills going nowhere. Much like the House as a whole, this Committee has been the victim of shameless virtue-signaling where politics have taken precedent over good policy.

“In the last session of Congress, this Committee passed more bills than any other Committee. Well over 200. 30 percent of those were democrat bills. Actually, 175 bills from our Committee passed the House. Roughly 28 percent of those were Democrat bills. That’s not the ratio you see today… in fact, before Friday there were two bills to be considered today that were bipartisan Republican bills… they were dropped.

“Here we are once again, in the midst of a very partisan markup… I have a great admiration for the process this Committee has. But this markup is a breakdown of that process. With that… I move the Committee to adjourn.” – Ranking Republican Rob Bishop   

Opening Statement Video HERE.

After more than a 20 minute delay, Democrats were capable of locating their members and resuming the markup. The good news? The Committee successfully made a motion to include the two bipartisan Republican bills that were deliberately excluded from consideration at today’s markup. U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar’s (R-Ariz.) bipartisan renewable energy bill and U.S. Rep. Jody Hice’s (R-Ga.) bill to protect historical American battlefields passed and will be ordered reported for consideration on the House floor.