Tom Suozzi to be sworn back into Congress on Feb. 28

WASHINGTON — Democrat Tom Suozzi will be sworn in on Feb. 28 as the representative from New York’s 3rd Congressional District in Nassau and Queens counties to finish the remainder of the 2023-24 term, the House speaker’s office said Thursday.

Suozzi, 61, of Glen Cove, will return to Congress three days before the deadlines for a possible partial shutdown of the federal government unless Congress agrees on a spending bill to extend or replace the stopgap appropriations that expire on March 1 and March 8.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) delayed Suozzi’s swearing in until after a 12-day House recess ending on Feb. 27.

Suozzi defeated Republican-backed Mazi Pilip 54% to 46% in a special election Tuesday to replace former Republican Rep. George Santos, who was expelled by the House on Dec. 1 following a scathing House Ethics Committee report and a 23-count federal criminal indictment. Santos has pleaded not guilty.

Suozzi will reclaim the seat in the U.S. House that he held for three terms before stepping down to launch an unsuccessful campaign in the Democratic primary against Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022, the year that Santos won the seat over Democrat Robert Zimmerman.

Once sworn in, Suozzi will trim the House Republican majority to six, meaning Johnson can lose only two votes from his caucus on any measure in a party-line vote with everyone voting.

For the rest of the term, Suozzi will occupy Santos’ office in the Longworth House Office Building. He will need to run again in the November general election for a full two-year term.

The House has three other vacancies that will not be filled for another two or three months.

Special elections will be held on May 21 to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and June 11 to replace Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio). Hochul set the special election to fill the seat of Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) on April 30.