RI Current: No rest for R.I.’s new congressman. He’s thankful just the same.

Congressman Gabe Amo’s Thanksgiving Day plans can be summed up in one word.

“Rest,” he said, without hesitation in an interview Tuesday.

Where he’s going for dinner? What he’s having? Who will join him? He doesn’t know yet. The only sure thing was that Rhode Island’s newest congressional representative wanted a low-key day.

“I am going to be more of a homebody,” he said.

Understandable, given his whirlwind debut on Capitol Hill. Less than two weeks after winning the Nov. 7 special election to represent Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District, Amo was sworn into office on the House floor just in time to vote on the stopgap spending bill aimed at avoiding a partial government shutdown.

A former White House staffer who worked in the Biden and Obama administrations, Amo was no stranger to the frantic and, at times, idiosyncratic, nature of life in Congress. He compared the chaotic yet casual nature of the House floor to a high school cafeteria.

“It’s a pretty free-flowing place,” he said. “You spend a lot of time in a small space together.”

His first three days included intimate conversations with a host of fellow representatives, from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, with whom he met before he was sworn in, to Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican who approached Amo after his first speech on the House floor.

“He came up to me and shared with me that the ancestral background of many in his district come from Liberia, so that was an interesting interaction,” Amo said.

Amo’s speech highlighted his parents’ journeys as immigrants from West Africa to Pawtucket to pursue new opportunities.

While Amo criticized the “chaos caucus” of Republicans leading the House during his campaign, he was heartened by the bipartisan welcome he received, including standing applause after he finished his floor speech on Nov. 13.

The brief moment of bonding didn’t last long.

Amo didn’t see the infamous hallway scuffle between former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett on Nov. 14, but he still was privy to moments of dysfunction, including the abrupt Thanksgiving recess called on Nov. 15 after a group of House Republicans opposed a procedural vote on an appropriations bill.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo, who now represents Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District:
“I was planning to stay and vote another day,” Amo said. “To see firsthand that there wasn’t cohesiveness among Republicans was a notable observation. It was disheartening to see the chaos firsthand.”

Amo didn’t emerge from his inaugural week unscathed, either. He was one of 54 representatives – all but one were Democrats – to vote against an amendment that would cut federal funding to colleges that promote or allow for antisemitism on campus. The amendment introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, passed anyway, with bipartisan support that included Amo’s fellow Rhode Island Congressman Seth Magaziner.

Still, critics blasted Amo on social media for his vote.

Amo in a statement on Nov. 20 said he wanted Congress to fund efforts to “root out antisemitism” rather than pulling funding.

“There is no place for hate or bigotry anywhere, including on college campuses, which is why I take the possible restrictions of federal funding very seriously,” Amo said. “I want Congress to federally fund real efforts to root out antisemitism.”

A day later, Amo added his name to a letter asking top House and Senate appropriations leaders to provide funding in fiscal year 2024 for Biden’s strategic antisemitism plan, which includes protections against harassment on college campuses, grants for synagogues and Jewish community centers, and money for law enforcement to prevent or prosecute hate crimes.

“Gabe has hit the ground running since his first day in Congress,” Magaziner said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. “He has shown an eagerness and drive to deliver for working Rhode Islanders, and I look forward to working together to fight for Rhode Island priorities in Congress.”

While back in Rhode Island for Thanksgiving week, the hectic pace has not yet slowed. He’s already opened offices in Pawtucket and D.C., naming former Warren Town Manager Kate Michaud as district director and Dylan Sodaro as his chief of staff. 

On Monday, Amo addressed members of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce at its annual meeting, followed the next morning by a tour of Wayland Square shops with U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and Providence Mayor Brett Smiley to promote the upcoming Small Business Saturday.

Amo also managed to squeeze in a short shopping trip of his own Tuesday, picking up an array of Rhode Island-themed decor at Frog & Toad on Hope Street for his new congressional office (formerly inhabited by his predecessor, David Cicilline). 

Indeed, lack of familiarity with Rhode Island, and Amo, was evident in his initial interviews with national reporters and discussions with top federal officials, several of whom mispronounced his last name and his hometown of Pawtucket.

Amo was unfazed.

“I am grateful anyone wants to say my name at all,” he said. “I look forward to meeting people face to face. A  great way to learn someone’s name is to learn their story.”

And speaking of gratitude, Amo said despite the lack of plans, this will be his “most special Thanksgiving yet” citing the “honor and privilege” of serving Rhode Islanders in Congress.

Amo’s election didn’t make a full House, with the chamber still one member shy of a full 435 after Utah Republican Chris Stewart stepped down in September. That will soon be rectified following Tuesday’s special election for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, won by Republican Celeste Maloy, according to preliminary results.