What caused a delay during a recent congressional hearing?
Answer: Unwanted background music.
Shutterstock One arguably good thing to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the entertaining video chat snafus that have resulted from everyone having to use such technology. From lawyers showing up as adorable kitties to the discombobulated heads of U.S. lawmakers, the possibilities are seemingly endless.
The U.S. House took the cake for funny video meeting issues again this week when a panel hearing had to take a brief recess on Monday due to random audio permeating their meeting. The hearing was for an Appropriations subcommittee on Energy and Water, but they had to pause for 20 minutes because the theme from the 2000 movie “Galaxy Quest” started playing, as well as music from The Village People.
Published: Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Mike Simpson (R-Idaho). Photo credit: Francis Chung/E&E News
House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and ranking member Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) are against proposed spending cuts for the Army Corps of Engineers. Francis Chung/E&E News
House appropriators called on President Biden yesterday to reverse his proposed funding cuts for the Army Corps of Engineers at a virtual hearing that was interrupted by audio glitches and movie soundtracks playing loudly in the background.
At the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, lawmakers repeatedly pointed to the Biden administration s proposal to cut the Army Corps budget for fiscal 2022 (
Liz Cheney fires back at Trump after he calls Biden s victory the Big Lie
11:51 a.m.
House GOP leadership reportedly isn t pleased with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) these days and her job as GOP conference chair may be on the line, but the congresswoman remains undeterred in her efforts to combat former President Donald Trump s false claims about the 2020 election.
The Twitter-less Trump released one of his rare statements on Monday morning, a one-liner that reads: The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE! The statement appears to be an attempt to co-opt the term used by many Trump opponents to describe his claims that he really won the election, and Cheney seemingly wants to ensure that doesn t happen. Not long after Trump s words were made public, Cheney fired back, tweeting that, on the contrary, anyone who claims the election was fraudulent is spreading THE BIG LIE.
Even after over a year of the pandemic, congressional Zoom snafus haven t gone anywhere.
The House Appropriations Committee held a virtual meeting on Monday on energy and water development, but for over 20 minutes, it wasn t easy to make out what anyone had to say on the subject. For a while, audio from at least different movies, including the 1999 comedy
Galaxy Quest, could be heard loudly playing.
Zoooooom. Appropriations subcommittee just was forced to take a break after Zoom went off the rails, movie clips and disco playing over members remarks.
Happily, it was up long enough to make out that iconic Galaxy Quest line, By the sons of Warvan, I shall avenge you!