Politics & Government

Fitzpatrick to Hold Town Hall Monday

We're waiting for confirmation that the event will go on, in light of the weekend's shooting of a congresswoman in Arizona.

Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick had been scheduled to hold a town hall meeting in Doylestown Monday night to dicuss health care.

No word as of yet whether that public event will go on, in light of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others at a public event in her district in Arizona on Saturday. Six people, including federal Judge John Roll and 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, were killed.

Meanwhile, President Obama has called for a national moment of silence at 11 a.m. Monday to honor the shooting victims.

Find out what's happening in Doylestownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We've reached out to Fitzpatrick's staff for confirmation that Monday night's event still will be taking place and will update here when we hear back.

Fitzpatrick had been planning to hold the town hall meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Bucks County Courthouse. It is supposed to be held in the community room on the first floor, where the county commissioners hold their public meetings.

Find out what's happening in Doylestownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A few DoylestownPatch readers had been disappointed last week that they didn't know ahead of time about Fitzpatrick had in Newtown, so we wanted to make sure we got the notice out about this one.

Fitzpatrick, a Republican, is representing the 8th District a second time, having been elected to Congress in 2004 for one term. He was defeated in 2006 by Democrat Patrick Murphy, who then held the seat for two terms.

Fitzpatrick made national headlines last week when he and Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, missed the House's swearing-in ceremony. The two men were visiting with Fitzpatrick's local supporters at a reception in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center when Speaker of the House John Boehner administered the oath to the 112th Congress.

Sessions and Fitzpatrick raised their hands and followed along on television, as seen in a great photograph by Intelligencer photographer David Garrett.

The two apologized in a letter to colleagues on Friday, but some critics are now calling for an inquiry into whether the reception Sessions and Fitzpatrick were at should more properly be deemed a fundraiser, which would violate ethics laws.

Fitzpatrick has said the event was not a fundraiser and that contributions were solicited only to pay for the bus ride from Bucks County to Washington.


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