WASHINGTON -- Democrats took over the House floor on Wednesday, seeking to force votes on gun-control proposals and pledging to continue their sit-in until they get what they want.
Chanting "no bill, no vote," a group of House Democrats shouted down Republican leaders' efforts to gavel the House into session about 11:30 a.m., and prevented the GOP from conducting regular business well into the evening.
The scene was broadcast live from Democrats' cellphones, feeds picked up by C-SPAN after Republicans shut down the network's cameras.
The sit-in was well into its 10th hour, with Democrats camped out on the floor stopping legislative business in the House, when Speaker Paul Ryan stepped to the podium to gavel the House into session and hold votes on routine business. Angry Democrats chanted "No bill, no break!" and waved pieces of paper containing the names of gun victims.
When Ryan reconvened for a vote on an unrelated issue, the vote went forward but chaos still reigned.
Ryan attempted to ignore the outbursts and announce the business of the day, pounding his gavel over shouting. "Shame! Shame! Shame!" Democrats yelled, but Ryan left the lectern and the voting continued. Then Democrats began singing "We Shall Overcome," still holding up the names of gun victims.
In response to last week's massacre in Orlando, Fla., Democrats said they would stay until Republicans yielded to their demands to hold votes on bills to strengthen background checks and prevent people on the federal no-fly list from getting guns.
"We'll be here as long as it takes, every day," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said during a news conference on the steps of the Capitol. "This is the moment of truth."
By evening, 168 House Democrats -- out of 188 -- and 34 Senate Democrats joined the protest, according to Pelosi's office. One after another, they spoke of the need for gun control and talked of constituents who have been killed.
Democratic senators joining the protest included Minority Leader Harry Reid, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who had waged a nearly 15-hour filibuster last week to force votes in the Senate on gun legislation. The measures were voted down Monday night.
On with business
In an appearance on CNN, Ryan, R-Wis., showed little inclination to meet Democrats' demands, criticizing them for staging "a publicity stunt" and for calling for votes on "a bill that already died" in the Senate earlier this week.
"People have a guaranteed right to Second Amendment rights," Ryan said. "We're not going to take away a person's constitutionally guaranteed rights without due process."
Several Democrats criticized Ryan during their floor speeches.
"Mr. Speaker, where the hell are you?" Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., yelled on the floor. "Are you willing to lead? Are you willing to keep America safe? Or are you hiding, Mr. Speaker, from the responsibility this House gave you?"
Republican representatives had a party meeting at 6 p.m. to figure out a way forward. They returned with a plan to continue business on a regularly scheduled vote.
Amid shouts from Democrats occupying the well of the House, Republican leaders unsuccessfully tried to override President Barack Obama's veto of a bill that would block the administration's recently issued fiduciary rule, which requires financial professionals to put their clients' interests first when giving advice on retirement investments. The tally in Wednesday's vote was 239-180, short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto. Arkansas' four representatives, all Republicans, voted for the measure.
Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., said Republicans wanted to use the vote to highlight how the Democrats' sit-in is preventing the House from doing its scheduled business.
"We are going to conduct the will of the people and conduct ourselves as an adult Congress that is actually going to uphold, I think, the norms, the customs, the rules of the House," she said. "If the minority chooses not to do that, that's their choice, but we are going to conduct our business, starting tonight."
Republicans also plan to schedule a vote as soon as today on legislation that would provide funding to combat the Zika virus.
Cameras turned off
Throughout the day Wednesday, Democrats marched one by one to a podium in the well of the House to criticize the GOP for refusing to take gun control measures to the floor. They taped rainbow-colored signs, which say "disarm hate," to all of the lecterns.
The cameras normally used for C-SPAN broadcasts, which are controlled by the House, were turned off and so were the microphones, leading some lawmakers to argue jokingly that the next person to speak should be the one with the loudest voice. While it's against House rules to take photos or video on the floor, C-SPAN carried live footage of the sit-in via the live streams from members' smartphones.
Apart from the intensity of the speeches, the House floor had the atmosphere of an open-mic night. As about a dozen Democrats sat in the well, several dozen more occupied the seats around them, and others trickled in and out.
"Are they more afraid than the children at Sandy Hook?" asked Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., referring to the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 elementary school children, in Newtown, Conn. "What is so scary about having a vote?"
Rep. John Lewis, a veteran civil-rights leader, asked what Congress has done, then answered his own question: "Nothing. We have turned a deaf ear to the blood of innocents. We are blind to a crisis. Where is our courage?"
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has drafted a compromise with a group of bipartisan senators that would prevent people on the FBI's no-fly and selectee lists from purchasing firearms. They have been promised a vote on the measure.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., argued that the sit-in could help build support for the Collins compromise.
"I think it puts more of a spotlight on both House Republicans to schedule something and Senate Republicans to do something," said Heinrich, one of the key negotiators on Collins' compromise who also visited the House floor during the sit-in Wednesday. "And I think it also puts pressure on Democrats to embrace something ... even if that may not be everything they want."
Republicans staged a similar protest in 2008. Democrats controlling the House at the time turned off the cameras amid a GOP push for a vote to expand oil and gas drilling. Republicans occupied the floor, delivering speeches after Pelosi, the speaker at the time, sent the House on its August recess. Pelosi ordered the cameras turned off.
Republicans ultimately forced the drilling provision to be attached to a stopgap spending bill.
Information for this article was contributed by Karoun Demirjian and Kelsey Snell of The Washington Post; by Billy House and staff members of Bloomberg News; and by Matthew Daly, Mary Clare Jalonick, Andrew Taylor, Erica Werner and Darlene Superville of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/23/2016