According to a statement on social media by the committee, the House Administration Committee is looking into why Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-New York, activated a fire alarm in a Capitol office building on Saturday.
Although Bowman’s staff agreed that he set off the alarm, they claimed it was an accident.
As he was hurrying to cast an urgent vote, Congressman Bowman was unaware that he would set off a building alarm, according to a statement from the spokeswoman. The congressman apologizes for any confusion.
An account run by the Republicans on the House Administration Committee posted on X, the website that replaced Twitter, saying “Rep. Jamal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in Cannon this morning,” and misspelled the congressman’s first name. “There is an investigation going on as to why it was pulled.”
Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, a Republican from Wisconsin, signed the letter.
A request for a response from the U.S. Capitol Police was not immediately complied with.
In the Cannon office building, that is connected to the Capitol by a subterranean tunnel, a fire alarm went off as the Republicans attempted to start a vote on a 45-day budget bill to keep the government open.
Democrats, who had received very little notice of the vote, appeared to try to delay its beginning. Many criticized Republicans for attempting to vote before Democrats had a chance to read the legislation.
Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries spoke for 52 minutes in an apparent effort to allow his colleagues and staff time to decide whether his party would support the bill.
The vote finally started two and a half hours after it was supposed to. Democrats also supported the plan by a large margin.