House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) denied House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy‘s (R-CA) second unanimous consent request to immediately pass a Supreme Court security bill on Thursday, announcing that the House will vote on the bill next week.
Though McCarthy, a California Republican, had made a unanimous consent request on the House floor to bring the legislation for a vote, Democrats failed to comply with this proposal.
“We had hoped that we could do it today but we certainly will do it at the beginning of next week,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday. Her remarks came after authorities arrested a man near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh‘s home who allegedly said he wanted to kill the justice.
The speaker of the house also told reporters that the justices are protected, firing back at a reporter who pointed out that there was an attempted assassination, “The justices are protected. This issue is not about the justices, it’s about staff and the rest. The justices are protected; you saw the attorney general even double down on that.”
WATCH:
.@SpeakerPelosi snaps at a reporter asking her about the threat on Justice Kavanaugh’s life: “They are protected!” pic.twitter.com/4q1BxAKfub
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 9, 2022
“But this is about security for the justices; an armed man showed up near Justice Kavanaugh’s house,” the reporter persisted, to which Pelosi responded, “We are working together on the bill that the Senate will be able to approve of … we can pass whatever we want here, we want it to be able to pass the Senate. So I don’t know what you’re talking about because evidently you haven’t seen what the … language is.”
“There will be a bill,” she added. “Nobody is in danger over the weekend because of our not having a bill.”
On Wednesday, Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill told The Daily Wire that Pelosi “believes that violence against public officials has no place in civilized society” and that the house speaker “condemns this abhorrent criminal act.”
McCarthy heavily criticized House Democrats for blocking the bill in a Thursday tweet.
“Speaker Pelosi has been sitting on this bill for a month and today claimed ‘nobody is in danger,’” he said. “She should tell that to the Kavanaugh family.”
For the second time, House Democrats BLOCKED a bill to provide more security for Supreme Court justices and their families.
Speaker Pelosi has been sitting on this bill for a month and today claimed “nobody is in danger”.
She should tell that to the Kavanaugh family. pic.twitter.com/4HPqZC3MMN
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) June 9, 2022
The White House has not responded to requests for comment from The Daily Wire as to whether the president supports Pelosi’s delay on the bill.
The Senate passed the legislation unanimously in May, but it has been stalled in the House of Representatives, prompting sharp criticism from Republicans who say that the bill should be passed immediately to protect the justices. House Democrats reportedly want the bill to also include protection for clerks and other Supreme Court staff.
When House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) asked House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) why leading Democrats had not put the bill to a vote, Hoyer responded that this was a “very relevant question.”
“Hopefully can move that as early as possible,” he said, according to CNN. “I want to tell the gentleman the reason he thought that it might be moving this morning was because last night I thought I had after discussions with Sen. Cornyn, a way forward both the Senate and the House could agree on. Unfortunately this morning that appeared not to be the case.”
According to CNN, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) also said on Thursday that the House is “ready to move” on the legislation and that the Senate is “ready to meet with them and resolve our differences.”
“What happened this week with Justice Kavanaugh is a reminder that we live in a dangerous place, and these people are vulnerable and we should protect them,” Durbin added, CNN reported.