Pelosi’s latest spending shenanigans are exactly what people hate about the DC Swamp

On Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., joined his fellow House conservative Chip Roy, R-Texas, in blocking a house leadership effort to send a disaster spending bill to the president’s desk without scheduled debate or a regular roll call vote.

The objections got the two criticized by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as “heartless,” to which Massie responded by pointing out that Pelosi showed her real level of concern for the bill by sending a House freshman to take her place behind the gavel that day.

So what’s actually going on here?

Massie and Roy objected to requests to move the bill forward by “unanimous consent.” Despite all the procedural requirements that typically exist for a bill to become law, Congress can get a considerable amount of business done as long as nobody in the chamber objects. The way the unanimous consent process works in the House is fairly straightforward: After getting clearance from leadership, a member requests unanimous consent of the chamber to do something like consider a bill or change debate time. If there’s no objection, the motion goes through.

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