House Speaker Ryan Looking Into Sanctions Over House Sit-In

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday that he has been meeting with the rules committee, parliamentarians and others about possible sanctions over Democrats' sit-in protest on the House floor two weeks ago over gun violence legislation.

In a press conference, he said that rebukes and reprimands were possible, and that nothing was on the table as they looked into what infractions had occurred or rules broken during the sit-in.

House Dems again Thursday continued to talk on the floor about gun violence after the House recessed following morning business.

Ryan called it a troubling trend and said that if the House floor became a partisan war zone there would be no chance of bipartisanship.

He signaled he would not allow the rule of law to be "thrown out the window" and opined that the House floor had become virtually the only place that he could get to know members of the other party.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.