Representative Jamaal Bowman faced GOP backlash for pulling a fire alarm in a building housing congressional offices on Saturday.
Representative Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm at the Cannon building in Washington, D.C., on Saturday as lawmakers sought to reach an agreement to fund the federal government in order to avert a shutdown, according to House Republicans.
Congress scrambled to pass legislation to fund the federal government on Saturday afternoon, ultimately passing a bipartisan short-term spending bill that will keep federal funding at its current levels for 45 days, and awaits a vote in the Senate. The voting mayhem follows weeks of fears that Congress would be unable to reach a deal by the end of September—and less than 10 hours until the government was set to shut down.
Amid the chaos, a fire alarm went off at the Cannon building, which houses congressional offices, according to a statement from Representative Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Administration committee.
In his statement, Steil wrote that Bowman—a Democrat who represents New York’s 16th Congressional District, containing parts of the Bronx and New York City’s northern suburbs—pulled the alarm, but did not go into further detail in the initial statement.
