A couple of House members have been voting since Wednesday without being sworn in.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Thursday administered the oath of office to Reps. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., who were apparently absent from the chamber yesterday when Boehner swore in the other members.

The two lawmakers nonetheless voted on changes to the rules of the House, stripping the voting rights of House delegates and slashing the House budget by 5 percent. Technically, their votes shouldn't count, but it's unclear whether their names will be removed from the roll call for those measures, which all passed with plenty of Republican votes to spare.

Sessions is vice chairman of the House Rules Committee and his failure to take the oath of office promoted the committee to abruptly shut down its debate over how to handle the repeal of President Obama's health-care reforms on the House floor. The House was supposed to take up that measure Friday.

The episode drew quick and intense criticism from House Democrats. Jennifer Crider of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee laid the blame on Boehner.

“Jokes aside, congressmen-elect Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick’s actions raise serious questions: What in the world was more important ... than taking the oath of office, committing to support and defend the U.S. Constitution? Why did Speaker Boehner and House Republican leadership allow two people who were not sworn members of Congress to vote and speak on the House floor? Republicans have spent a lot of time over the past two days proselytizing about House rules, but they don’t seem very keen on actually following the rules.”