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The House narrowly rejected a motion to send a resolution censuring Delegate Stacey Plaskett to a committee for review. The vote failed by a single vote, mostly along party lines, keeping the measure on the floor for immediate action.
This vote was a procedural attempt to send House Resolution 888 to a committee for further study. The underlying resolution, introduced by Representative Ralph Norman, proposes to formally censure (publicly scold) Delegate Stacey Plaskett and remove her from the House Intelligence Committee. It alleges that she improperly coordinated with Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing. A 'Motion to Refer' is a common move used to move a bill or resolution off the main House floor and into a committee. In a political context, this is often used by the opposing party to delay or stop a controversial measure from being voted on immediately by the full House membership. The motion failed by just one vote, with Democrats voting to refer the matter and Republicans voting to keep it on the floor. Because the motion was rejected, the House did not send the matter for committee review and instead proceeded to deal with the resolution directly. This outcome highlights the extremely narrow majority in the current House.
Following this failed motion, the House proceeded to a final vote on the resolution itself.
OPEN BILL →Why it matters. The failure of this motion allowed an immediate public vote on the censure of a member, rather than sending the allegations to a committee for private review.
Who’s affected. Delegate Stacey Plaskett: Faced an immediate floor vote on her conduct and committee status rather than a delayed committee review. · House Ethics Committee: Was bypassed as the primary venue for investigating these specific allegations in this instance.
Democrats. Nearly all Democrats voted to refer the measure to committee, which would have delayed the censure process.
Republicans. Nearly all Republicans voted against the referral, preferring to move directly to a vote on the resolution.
On Motion to Refer
Nov 18, 2025
The House narrowly rejected a motion to send a resolution censuring Delegate Stacey Plaskett to a committee for review.
The vote failed by a single vote, mostly along party lines, keeping the measure on the floor for immediate action.
A motion to refer is a request to send a matter to a committee instead of voting on it immediately. If successful, it usually delays the proposal by moving it out of the public spotlight for further internal review.
Following this failed motion, the House proceeded to a final vote on the resolution itself.
The failure of this motion allowed an immediate public vote on the censure of a member, rather than sending the allegations to a committee for private review.
The vote was almost entirely split by party, failing by a single vote in a near-total party-line lockout.
Nearly all Democrats voted to refer the measure to committee, which would have delayed the censure process.
Nearly all Republicans voted against the referral, preferring to move directly to a vote on the resolution.
The lone independent member voted against the referral.