Acting speaker orders Pelosi to vacate Capitol office she held as former speaker

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) also is losing coveted office space at the direction of Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the new speaker pro tempore

By Mariana Alfaro

Updated October 4, 2023 at 9:43 a.m. EDT|Published October 3, 2023 at 10:02 p.m. EDT

As former House speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was allowed to keep an office in the Capitol. She was ordered to vacate it by Wednesday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)



In one of his first moves as speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) on Tuesday ordered former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vacate her hideaway office in the Capitol by Wednesday.

Although lawmakers who are not in leadership do not usually have offices in the Capitol, Pelosi, as a former speaker, was allowed to keep one.

On Wednesday morning, the office of Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), the former Democratic majority leader, confirmed that he also had been asked by McHenry to vacate his Capitol hideaway.

Both Pelosi and Hoyer still have offices across the street from the Capitol, in one of the complex’s attached buildings. But because of their time serving in House leadership — the two octogenarians led the Democratic Party in the House for two decades — they had been assigned offices in the main Capitol building.

In a statement, Pelosi said “this eviction is a sharp departure from tradition” and noted that when she was speaker, she gave former speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) “a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished.”

Pelosi said that office space “doesn’t matter” to her, “but it seems to be important to them.”

“Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time,” Pelosi said. “Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important for the American people.”

McHenry’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Hoyer’s office declined to comment Wednesday beyond confirming the request to vacate.

As of Tuesday night, it was unclear which office spaces McHenry and McCarthy would occupy, given the speed of McCarthy’s ouster and McHenry’s appointment.

After the vote to remove McCarthy was over, he marched back to the speaker’s office, which is next to the Rotunda. An hour or so later, McHenry made his way there, too. Later that night, McCarthy was seen walking out of the speaker’s office, and the Capitol building, with a box under his arm.


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