'Pettiest fight on Capitol Hill': Dems suspect GOP of underhand effort to block meetings

Democrats have been facing difficulty reserving meeting spaces at the U.S. Capitol — and some of them are starting to suspect the Republican majority might be shutting them out.

Multiple Democrats and their staffers told NOTUS they've struggled to reserve rooms for committee or caucus meetings and other events on Capitol Hill, which has created real obstacles to carrying out their work and gathering with constituents.

“If we were in the majority, I think we’d be working hard to make sure there was deconfliction tools so there wasn’t conflicts, and sometimes it’s not a conflict," said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY). "Maybe there’s more to it. Everybody deserves the right to be able to have space to do their job here, and I think we should try to accommodate people to the greatest extent possible.”

Some Democrats agreed that "maybe there’s more to it" and speculated that Republicans might be intentionally hogging meeting spaces to prevent them from mounting a resistance. Notus called it the "pettiest fight on Capitol Hill."

“From gutting resolutions of inquiry seeking answers on Trump’s unlawful actions in office to making it harder for Democrats to reserve rooms to hold spotlight hearings,” a Democratic committee aide told NOTUS. “Republicans are doing everything they can to make sure no one can hold Trump accountable.”

The chief administrative officer, the speaker’s office and individual committees share responsibility for approving rooms on Capitol Hill, and the Capitol Visitor Center handles three spaces and Democratic leadership controls a room in the basement where they hold weekly caucus meetings.

“The last time Democrats controlled the Capitol it was locked down from the public for over two years,” a spokesman for House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement, referring to the period after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. “Under Republican control since 2023, the Capitol complex is fully back open for the public to enjoy and for members and staff to congregate freely again. Under Speaker Johnson, there has been zero change in the procedure or rate of room requests and approvals.”

But Democrats say the problem is new and noteworthy, although some stopped short of blaming Republicans on the record.

“It’s an issue," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO). Since I’ve been in Congress, everything is worse. You’d have to have a higher level of paranoia to actually go there."