New House rules permitting lawmakers to vote both by proxy and remotely, without ever coming to the Capitol, were intended to allow Congress to function more safely during the coronavirus outbreak.
But some lawmakers have used the rules to record their votes while on vacation, campaigning, or attending other events.
One lawmaker this summer voted on a $10 billion water resources bill from his boat, blue skies and shimmering water in the background.
Other lawmakers allowed members to cast their votes by proxy while tending to family obligations or other events that clashed with the House legislative schedule.
Their actions appear to defy the intent of the rules change, which Democrats passed on May 15, breaking the 231-year-old requirement that House lawmakers debate and vote on legislation in person.
Potential abuse of the proxy voting rule is under close scrutiny from House Republicans, who are in the minority and opposed the rule change. The GOP and a small group of constituents filed a lawsuit to stop it and have appealed a lower court ruling that they lacked standing to file the lawsuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is expected to hear arguments in the case in October.
“Speaker Pelosi is using proxy voting to consolidate more power,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, told the Washington Examiner. “This is not how Congress is supposed to work, but it is exactly how this majority has chosen to waste its time.”
The Democratic legislation stipulated that the change allowing proxy and remote voting will be temporary and is limited to coronavirus-related reasons.
A provision in the legislation allows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, to extend the proxy voting rule unilaterally, and she has done so twice. It’s currently in place until at least Oct. 2.
“The nation is in the middle of a dangerous pandemic, and the House of Representatives must continue to work,” Pelosi said earlier this month in defense of the rule change.
But lawmakers appear to have expanded their reasons for voting far beyond the pandemic.
Rep. Joe Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, skipped an emergency House session on Saturday that Pelosi convened to debate and vote on a $25 billion bill to bail out the financially struggling Postal Service and to block changes to mail delivery service.
Kennedy, the grandson of Robert Kennedy, was back in the Bay State, campaigning ahead of next Tuesday’s Democratic primary, where he is tied in the polls with incumbent Sen. Ed Markey. Pelosi endorsed Kennedy earlier this month.
Videos published on Kennedy’s Facebook page indicate that the lawmaker appeared with voters along various stops in a 26-hour swing across the state over the weekend.
Kennedy is shown standing next to supporters, addressing crowds, and voting early for himself in the primary at a Newton polling location.
His congressional website conceals his absence. Kennedy’s “recent votes” are listed prominently, including four cast on Saturday by another lawmaker on his behalf while Kennedy was meeting with voters in Boston, Weymouth, and other Massachusetts stops.
The page does not mention that Kennedy was not present for the vote, and there is no requirement for him to do so. In a heated debate earlier this month, Kennedy criticized Markey for missing half of all the Senate’s votes since the pandemic started.
Kennedy’s four votes on Saturday, including a vote in favor of final passage of the $25 billion bailout bill, were cast on his behalf by Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat whose Boca Raton district is about 1,500 miles south of where Kennedy’s Bristol, Plymouth, and Fall River constituents reside.
Like all House lawmakers who utilize the new proxy system, Kennedy was required to send a letter to House Clerk Cheryl Johnson indicating that he was “unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency.”
A Kennedy spokesman told the Washington Examiner that Republican lawmakers have not been wearing masks, increasing the risk of the novel coronavirus spreading around the Capitol. Pelosi now mandates mask use in committee and on the House floor, however.
“Until his GOP colleagues take this pandemic seriously, it will be safer for congressman Kennedy to vote in public in Massachusetts than among maskless Republican congressmen in Washington,” spokesman Dan Black said when asked about Kennedy voting in his own primary on Saturday while skipping the House session.
Other lawmakers have also utilized remote or proxy voting for reasons that appear unrelated to the virus.
Reps. Charlie Crist and Darren Soto, both Florida Democrats, voted by proxy May 27, the same day the two attended the attempted SpaceX launch at the Kennedy Space Center. The launch was delayed due to weather.
Crist justified his decision to vote by proxy and attend the launch by arguing that it was safer to drive a car to the Kennedy Center two hours away from his district than to risk catching and spreading the virus by flying to Washington.
Another House Democrat left the Capitol midweek during a busy legislative session in late May after he decided it wasn’t worth it to stick around because the measures left on the agenda included suspension bills, which tend to be less significant.
“When I learned that the calendar today would only be suspension votes, I wanted to get home for some family obligations,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, of New York, told Newsday at the time. “So instead of just missing the votes, which I could do that too, I decided I would just file a proxy vote.”
Suozzi authorized Rep. Jimmy Panetta, a California Democrat, to cast votes on his behalf to pass a bill revising a critical small-business loan program and approve a conference with the Senate on major government surveillance legislation, among other measures.
When Democrats passed the proxy voting rule, it included a provision that for the first time allows virtual House committee work, including voting remotely on committee business and advancing legislation, all over the internet.
Lawmakers have used the system frequently this summer to conduct virtual or hybrid committee hearings and markups, but not without glitches. They have struggled with technical difficulties, embarrassing hot-mic moments, and, in one case, a vote from a boat.
Rep. Greg Stanton, a freshman Arizona Democrat, voted remotely in mid-July to advance the Water Resources Development Act, which authorizes $10 billion in water infrastructure projects.
Stanton appeared virtually on a monitor during the Transportation and Infrastructure hearing room. Stanton’s image on the screen startled the members attending in person who noticed that Stanton appeared to be rowing a boat while he voted “no” on an amendment.
Stanton, who was visiting Utah at the time, quickly apologized on Twitter.
“There’s no getting around it: I messed up and I’m sorry for it. I participated in the five-hour markup mostly from inside and went outside to watch my kids (while listening in the entire time) shortly before the vote was called,” Stanton tweeted.
Republicans said the issue of proxy vote abuse was more serious than Stanton’s vote while boating.
The House has voted 13 times so far on measures that would not have passed if only those present in the chamber were counted. In other words, on more than a dozen occasions, the proxy votes cast on behalf of absent lawmakers determined the outcome. In some cases, lawmakers in the chamber have voted for six other members. The rule allows each member to vote for up to 10 other lawmakers, which Republicans argue is unconstitutional and strips constituents of proper representation in Congress.
Republicans say it fundamentally undermines the nature of Congress, which was designed by the Founding Fathers for lawmakers to hear each other debate in person before voting.
“Do we meet together and discuss whether to agree or disagree? Or do we not?” one top GOP aide said, describing the risk of proxy voting. “If this is how we are going to operate, we are going to retreat to our corners, call in our vote from our boat, and go back to sunbathing.”
The GOP pointed out that the change in the rules also allows staff the unprecedented authority to dictate a lawmaker’s proxy vote to another member if the absent lawmaker is unable to do it.
The new system has led to confusion and at least one mistake.
During the Saturday emergency session, two Democrats voted by proxy for Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree, doubling her vote on one floor motion. Floor staff caught the error, but it underscored the risk of potentially critical mistakes when members do not cast their own votes by using their electronic cards in the chamber.
Democrats argue proxy voting and remote business is essential during a pandemic, citing the risk of having 435 lawmakers traveling to the Capitol from districts nationwide, which could present health risks, particularly for older members and those with preexisting conditions. Regular meetings of the House could “turn into a superspreader event,” Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat and author of the rule change, said.
A dozen House lawmakers and more than 80 Capitol employees have tested positive for the coronavirus since the outbreak began. Two Republican senators, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have contracted the coronavirus, and others, including Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, have tested positive for virus antibodies.
The Senate, run by Republicans, continues to require voting in person.
The GOP has remained largely unified against proxy voting. Only one House Republican, Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida, who is retiring, voted by proxy on Saturday. Sixty-eight Democrats, 30% of the caucus, voted by proxy.
Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee and a leading opponent of the new proxy voting rule, told the Washington Examiner that the House needs to reverse it. Davis tested positive for the coronavirus on Aug. 5 and, after an asymptomatic quarantine, was cleared to show up and vote on Saturday.
He says the proxy voting rule increases Pelosi’s power by limiting his ability to negotiate on legislation with more moderate Democrats who could then influence legislation.
“When you have 30% of the Congress mailing it in, it only empowers the speaker to write the legislation in her office,” Davis told the Washington Examiner. “And it takes voices like mine away from working with my moderate Democratic colleagues on solutions they can bring to the speaker, to be part of the debate and part of the process.”
