From: Tommy Pope
Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2023 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: Freedom Caucus Members Kicked Out of Republican House Caucus: ACTION NEEDED
I am attaching the caucus rules as developed by the Caucus Rules Committee and overwhelmingly adopted by the House Republican Caucus. I also am providing Majority Leader Davey Hiott’s statement that was given to members(below).
As you will hopefully see the portrayal by Fits News and others as a loyalty oath, or that members cannot take pictures of the board or that Davey Hiott and I are the ring leaders working to drive members of the Freedom Caucus out is inaccurate and disingenuous. Further for my constituents I want to note I am not a caucus officer and did not serve on the rules committee. In fact the proposal of a signature by all members to acknowledge and agree to abide by the rules was introduced by a member of the Freedom Caucus that served on the Rules Committee.
In order to effectively caucus on our Republican agenda members have to be able to trust confidentiality, there have been problems with that in the past. Likewise to accomplish our joint objectives members have to be able to work together without concern from being undermined by a member of their own Caucus. This too has been a problem in the past.
There is no move to block any Republican member from joining the Caucus, they simply need to agree to abide by the rules. I hope that most if not all of the members who have yet to join the caucus this year chose to do so. They bring a diversity of opinion that is healthy to our debate. Caucus is where we resolve our differences as Republicans so that when we get on the floor we can work together to pass the conservative legislation (attached) we were sent there to accomplish.
I hope this provides come clarity to the issue. I do not intend to spend any more energy on this distracting, collateral matter. Responding to these intentional falsehoods and external inaccuracies is time consuming. But those that promote them often realize a benefit, financial or otherwise and apparently have the time and resources to chase fabrications rather than focusing on the work of the people. I do not! I intend to focus on the job I was sent to Columbia to do, to the best of my ability, then as always it will be up to my voters to decide if I have met their expectations, if I have not I was looking for a job when I found this one. Take care. TPope
