Frustrated lawmakers block action in House

The group of four foiled passage of a $41 million spending bill yesterday and vowed to stop any further action in the chamber until DeLeo relents and authorizes an audit of at least $378,000 in bills paid to a private law firm that represented the House over the past year. The firm was hired by DiMasi before his resignation as House speaker and his federal indictment, and it is unclear how the unusually large figure was arrived at.

“We’re just asking for accountability and transparency,’’ said state Representative Lida Harkins, Democrat of Needham. “I get a lot of calls on the misuse of funds from constituents who want to know why their tax dollars are being diverted for legal purposes. And we don’t have any accounting for it.’’

Harkins said the bills from the firm Gargiulo/Rudnick, which amount to about 1,430 hours of legal work or the equivalent of a full-time lawyer for nine months, seem “out of whack’’ for what may have been required. She cited investigations last year into two state senators in which legal bills amounted to a fraction of what Gargiulo/Rudnick charged.

The unusual insurrection comes at a combustible time in Beacon Hill politics. The chamber has seen layoffs of House staff, its leadership has been sharply criticized by Governor Deval Patrick for what he has called inaction, and a group of 30 or so representatives gathered Friday in a sign of increasing dissension among the rank and file.

Amid this unrest, Harkins and three other representatives requested an independent, outside audit of the fees charged by Gargiulo/Rudnick. DeLeo, in turn, sent their request to the House Rules Committee, which is routinely used by House leaders to quietly kill such directives.

Yesterday, DeLeo downplayed his decision to send the audit request to committee, saying it had appeared without any warning and needed to be studied. He said the work by Gargiulo/Rudnick involved helping the House respond to the discovery process, which required specialized legal expertise. The speaker, who took over the House last January when DiMasi resigned, has declined to release the details of the bills, except to say that none of the work was for any individual involved in the case.

“We’ll have to review what they are seeking and act accordingly,’’ DeLeo told reporters. ‘We’ll see how the order goes through the process of going through the House rules review. What the particular order says, I’ll review with the chair of the House Committee on Rules and act accordingly.’’

Meanwhile, Representative Charles A. Murphy, a DiMasi loyalist and the House chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said that by stalling business, the Harkins group is blocking critical funding for homeless shelters and a $100,000 payment to the family of a Weymouth police officer killed in the line of duty.

“Just because we see the language five minutes before and we didn’t act on it, it is not fair to suggest this is a wrong move by the leadership,’’ Murphy said.

By last night, DeLeo aides circulated a letter that accompanied a subpoena for House records from the US attorney. The letter said, “You are hereby requested not to disclose the existence of this subpoena,’’ and aides implied they were not releasing details of the legal bills because it would provide details of the subpoenas. The letter, though, stated they were not required to comply with the request.

The dissension is expected to continue today. Representative Matthew Patrick, Democrat of Falmouth, said he would introduce another order today and vowed to shut the House session down if he cannot get a vote. Under the rule, any member can block action when the Legislature meets in informal session. The House and Senate have ended the 2009 session and meet in informal sessions only to take up noncontroversial items. Representatives William G. Greene Jr. of Billerica and Thomas M. Stanley of Waltham round out the group of four.

Their move to challenge DeLeo followed a Globe report last week that DiMasi, facing a federal probe that eventually led to his June indictment on corruption charges, had hand-picked the law firm, Gargiulo/Rudnick, to represent the House during the investigation. At the time, the US attorney’s office was preparing its case alleging the former speaker took money from a software firm in exchange for helping it win a state contract.

The flare-up over the legal bills reflects what House insiders say is a small but growing force of dissidents among the Democrats who are willing to challenge DeLeo’s leadership. Harkins said members are upset that DeLeo has not set a clear agenda or provided an advance schedule for the House sessions. She said about 30 members met last Friday to discuss the issues.

“He has some growing problems because of lack of organization and lack of goals and agenda and now lack of accountability,’’ said Harkins, who had backed DeLeo’s rival, former majority leader John H. Rogers, in the struggle to succeed DiMasi.

DeLeo dismissed Harkins’s assertions. “I feel very confident of our support,’’ he said.