Thread by @MattGlassman312

I don’t believe this is correct. Rule I, clause 12(e) was added in the 114th Congress, and specifically allows the Speaker, after “consultation” with the minority leader, to unilaterally break an adjournment and reconvene when in the public interest. (Citations in next tweet).

https://twitter.com/sfpelosi/status/1347657854774243328

https://twitter.com/mattglassman312/status/1347603361365962763

Now, you still need to get a quorum back to DC. Until you do that, you definitely will need unanimous consent to do anything, because if you don’t have UC, anyone could object to the lack of a quorum.

But in terms of moving up the time to reconvene, Pelosi has that authority.

A further question is how much weight the “consultation” has. In my experience, that basically means Pelosi must notify McCarthy; it does not give him an veto.

All of this is provisional; I’ve never seen this clause used, nor do I have the record of debate/discussion from when it was added. Similar authority was provided by separate H.Res. in the 112th (H.Res.479) and 113th (H.Res.66) and then it was put into the standing rules in 114.

So, in my view, Pelosi could call the members back to DC, announce the House will be reconvening tonight, and then begin to act as soon as a quorum was available.

I do not believe it is required to wait until Monday.

The current adjournment was done early morning Thursday and is a simple House adjournment, conforming to the constitutional requirement of being less than 3 days, since they don’t have Senate consent.

The reference to 5(a)(1)(B) of H.Res.8 is to the new rules package, which gives the chair unilateral adjournment authority for the month of January.

All of his is exactly what Rule I, clause 12(e) contemplates when it authorizes the Speaker to adjust the date for reconvening.

If the larger point is political—that the Dems either can’t get a quorum back here before Monday, or don’t think that’s the best strategy—I defer to their wisdom.

But arguments that they *can’t* come back earlier than that because of the adjournment ring hollow to me.