Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Reps. Fitzpatrick, Sessions to Boehner: We Goofed

Bucks County's Mike Fitzpatrick and the other congressman who earlier this week missed their swearing-in to Congress sent a joint letter of apology on Friday to the new House speaker, John Boehner.

Bucks County's Mike Fitzpatrick and the other congressman who earlier this week missed their swearing-in to Congress sent a joint letter of apology on Friday to the new House speaker, John Boehner.

Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) and Pete Sessions (R., Texas), were visiting with Fitzpatrick supporters in the nearby Capitol Visitor Center when Boehner (R., Ohio) read the oath of office on the House floor.

Both men raised their hands and swore the oath in front of more than 500 people who traveled to Washington to celebrate Fitzpatrick's swearing-in. But House parlimentarians advised the men to re-take the oath Thursday on the House floor, and the chamber's leaders had to scramble to undo votes both men had taken by then.

"We are deeply committed to fulfilling our role in our constitutional democracy by maintaining the integrity of the People's House," the two congressmen wrote in the letter to Boehner, which they also made public. "Our absence on the House floor during the oath of office ceremony for the 112th Congress - while not intentional - fell short of this standard by creating uncertainty regarding our standing in this body."

On Friday, the House voted to nullify the votes Fitzpatrick and Sessions had cast before they were officially sworn in on Thursday afternoon.

Fitzpatrick, 47, who had previously served in Congress from 2005 to 2007, said he regrets the misstep.

"The administration of the oath is an important occasion and I intended to be on the floor, but I was caught up in the the Capitol among several of my constituents," he said in an interview late Friday.