The House’s new interim speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), is wasting no time making moves, as according to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), McHenry has ordered her to vacate her office in the Capitol Building.
History was made on Tuesday when Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) became the first speaker of the House to be removed in the history of the United States Congress.
His replacement, McHenry, sent an email to Pelosi’s office that was viewed by CNN shortly after being put into his position.
“Going to reassign h-132 for speaker office use. Please vacate the space tomorrow,” the email said.
Pelosi shared with the outlet that she does maintain her regular office in the Cannon House office building. She also said she was not in Washington, D.C., to immediately move her belongings.
“With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time.”
Feinstein passed last week at the age of 90. She was the longest-serving female U.S. senator in history. She is set to lie in San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday before her funeral service on Thursday.
Pelosi went on to say that “eviction is a sharp departure from tradition.”
“As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,” Pelosi said. “Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems to be important to them. Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important for the American people.”
McHenry’s official title will be speaker pro tempore, and the congressman will preside over the vote and selection of the next speaker, which will not be McCarthy as he said he won’t run again.