House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., center, arrives for a Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill today. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the two Democrats who voted with Republicans to advance a procedural rule “blindsided the entire caucus and created a significant breach of trust.”
Jeffries told NBC News that the two members — Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington — “did not give any member of House Democratic leadership a heads up” before they voted for the rule this afternoon.
The rule is essentially a procedural agreement that determines how a set of bills will be debated and amended on the House floor. Rule votes typically fall along party lines, so Gluesenkamp Perez and Golden’s support for the measure gave Republican leaders a lifeline, especially as some of their own members were trying to block the rule in protest of provisions in the short-term government-funding resolution.
Had Gluesenkamp Perez and Golden voted with Democrats, Republicans would have been unable to move forward with any more bills this week.
Asked whether the two Democrats could face repercussions for their actions, Jeffries said that is “under discussion right now.”
Since Gluesenkamp Perez and Golden helped clear the rule today, several bills have been brought forward, including legislation co-sponsored by Golden: the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026.
Gluesenkamp Perez said on X that her vote was in support of the lobsterman bill.
“Sunday night my son pulled his first fish out of the Columbia river. What the DC bubble doesn’t get is that working waterfronts require working people,” she wrote. “Nature is not a terrarium–and you don’t get effective environmentalism without the input of people who make their livelihoods and heritage on the water-whether we’re talking about lobsters or sea lions–working people need a seat at the table and electeds need to listen to them, not data from the 1990s.”
Golden, who represents a district Trump won in 2024, is not running for re-election. Gluesenkamp Perez has bucked her party on certain votes over the years.
Other Democrats criticized Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez for going against the party.
“There is no reason not to vote with your party on the rule,” Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., wrote on X. “The final passage is one thing, but what amendments are in order, how much time for debate & the rest of the rule is ALWAYS partisan. You only oppose your party to mark yourself as a stick in the spokes.”
