In the absence of an elected speaker of the House, Patrick McHenry is the Speaker Pro Tem, or acting speaker, and his first order of business was to evict Nancy Pelosi from her hideaway office in the Capitol.
Here’s more from The Hill:
Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vacate her Capitol hideaway office so he could take it over, just hours after becoming acting Speaker, Pelosi’s office said Tuesday.
McHenry became acting Speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted from the role Tuesday, the first time a Speaker has been voted out of the job.
McHenry’s office requested that Pelosi vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday because it was being re-allocated “for speaker office use,” the message, first reported by Politico, reads. A small number of senior Representatives have “hideaway offices” inside the Capitol Building.
Nancy Pelosi was not happy, claiming this goes against tradition and blah blah blah:
Pelosi denounced the demand in a statement late Tuesday.
“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,” she said.
“This eviction is a sharp departure from tradition,” she continued. “As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished.”
She called on McHenry and House Republicans to focus instead on legislation.
I have to say I love this move. It’s time to exorcise some demons. She’s not speaker and doesn’t deserve any special privileges.
But this biggest thing for me is that this sets the tone for his role as acting speaker and he looks strong doing it. Maybe Henry is the guy to lead the caucus when they decide to nominate and vote, whenever that will be.