How a bill about whales turned into a warning sign for Democrats

WASHINGTON — After a bill about whales caused a mutiny among Democrats, some fear they're sailing toward even rougher waters.

For two years, they've griped about dysfunction among their Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives. With a historically thin voting margin, hardline conservatives have, over and over again , effectively frozen the GOP-led chamber's legislative agenda to advocate for their own issues. The family drama has created major hurdles for Speaker Mike Johnson to, at times, do even the basics of Congress' typical work.

Democrats, despite all their complaining, may soon be in the exact same boat.

An early warning sign came over the last week. Two moderate Democrats, Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Maine Rep. Jared Golden, threw Republicans a political lifeline when they broke with their party to support a procedural measure known as a "rule," triggering movement on a series of bills across the House floor.

Among them was legislation, introduced by Golden himself, to delay the onset of federal whale protections he warned would hurt coastal lobster fishing. In a statement after the bill passed, the congressman said he'd succeeded in shielding Maine lobstermen from "costly, burdensome new regulations."

"My constituents don't care about the team sports of congressional procedure," he said. "I will always vote in the interest of Maine's fishing families and communities."

Gluesenkamp Perez, widely known as a political maverick and fiscally conservative Democrat, issued a similar statement: "What the DC bubble doesn't get is that working waterfronts require working people," she said.

The duo's defiance paved the way for a resolution to condemn socialism, a key election-year messaging bill for the GOP that drew glaring defections among Democrats, many of whom were incensed at the turn of events. In a joint statement with other top Democrats, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the New York lawmaker who could become the next and first Black speaker of the House, accused the rebellious pair of a "significant breach of trust," vowing a "serious response."

Two days later, he seemed to walk that threat back after what he called a "productive, forward-looking conversation" with Gluesenkamp Perez.

The debacle offered a worrisome glimpse into a possible future for Democrats in the House, where in November, they expect to regain a much-needed foothold of power in a largely Republican-controlled Washington. It also presented an early leadership test for Jeffries, whose rising political influence, and potentially historic speakership, is already being haunted by comparisons to the iron first of his predecessor, Nancy Pelosi .

"Nancy had a lot of ways of exercising power," Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, told USA TODAY.

Read more in our On Politics newsletter: House Democrats' wake-up call

Jayapal, who at times clashed with former Speaker Pelosi, said there were moments when she and other progressives leaned on the same procedural maneuvers that Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez did. But they used the tactic of threatening to tank a rule vote "very sparingly," she said, and only after consulting with leadership and failing to reach a compromise.

By contrast, Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez blindsided Jeffries and the rest of the Democratic caucus entirely, creating "a lot of anger," according to Jayapal.

"It's OK to vote your district and feel like you need to stick up for your district," Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Virginia, told USA TODAY. "It's important also to communicate that, so that we can all be on the same page."

Without better communication, Subramanyam warned, Democrats could fall prey to the same discord that has hampered Republicans' ability to follow through on more of their priorities.

"It could very well happen a lot next year if we're not united," he said.

Want more political news? Subscribe here to our daily On Politics newsletter, and get news straight from halls of the Capitol to your inbox

Will there be consequences?

The frustration within the Democratic caucus immediately prompted some calls for harsh consequences. But the question for Jeffries, of just how much of an example to make out of the betrayal, was immediately complicated by several factors.

For one, Golden is departing Congress next year. Gluesenkamp Perez, meanwhile, is in a tough reelection race, and Democrats desperately want to keep her more rural seat blue.

Despite those dynamics, there was talk in recent days on Capitol Hill about the prospect of stripping the Washington congresswoman of her sole committee assignment. Theoretically, Jeffries could take away her spot on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, where she has the enviable ability to earmark federal spending priorities for her district.

Ultimately, several Democrats, including Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, told USA TODAY they wouldn't support such a harsh punishment.

Still, McGovern made his displeasure with Gluesenkamp Perez abundantly clear. He turned his back on her as she was speaking during a meeting of the Rules Committee, the panel in charge of the procedural nitty-gritty of legislative business. After meeting with Gluesenkamp Perez, McGovern, the top Democrat on the committee who will likely hold its gavel next year, told USA TODAY his exasperation with her was "yesterday's news."

But the détente didn't seem to fully wipe away a broader preoccupation among influential Democrats like him about whether they can fully avoid the same types of public, intraparty brawls that have befallen the GOP.

Hyperpartisanship and the gerrymandering wars have decreased the likelihood that either party will have a comfortable majority in the House any time soon. As a result, even a handful of lawmakers on either side will continue to have outsized power over the chamber's day-to-day operations — a dynamic that will continue to pose complex problems for congressional leaders.

"All I'm interested in is making sure that when we win, we're not them," McGovern said, referring to Republicans, "because these guys seem incapable of governing."

Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How a bill about whales turned into a warning sign for Democrats