House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Wednesday Democrats are drafting a plan that would allow lawmakers to conduct business, including voting, without coming to the Capitol in the event of an emergency. But it would not be allowed during the immediate coronavirus crisis that has shuttered Congress.
“It’s being worked on very hard,” Hoyer told reporters in a telephone press conference.
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The House adjourned in mid-March due to the threat of the spread of the coronavirus and is not scheduled to return until May 4 at the earliest.
That means any legislation must pass by voice approval or unanimous consent, which do not require an official quorum of lawmakers to appear in the chamber.
Hoyer said lawmakers are contemplating ways to permit remote roll-call votes “in an emergency situation” at some point in the future, but he said it would require a vote of the full House to change the rules that now require in-person voting.
Hoyer said House and Senate leaders in both parties do not want remote voting allowed on a regular basis.
“We need to have members come together, we need to have open and transparent hearings, we need to have changes on the floor with amendments on bills,” Hoyer said. “That is the way it ought to be done. But in an emergency situation where it is impossible to do it that way, we’ve got to have an alternative.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, has assigned Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern to study how the House can operate remotely. McGovern issued a preliminary report last month that cited serious security concerns with holding remote votes on legislation and in committee.
Pelosi has rejected remote voting in the immediate future said it would require the House to vote to change the rules first.
The House faces increasing difficulty operating remotely.
Leaders in both parties are negotiating a new spending measure they hope to pass as early as this week that would hundreds of billions of dollars in new federal aid. But at least one Republican fiscal hawk, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, is threatening to block a voice vote or unanimous consent passage of the measure.
Massie last month forced hundreds of lawmakers to come to the Capitol and crowd into the House chamber after he attempted to force a roll call vote on a $2.2 trillion spending package.
Massie has since called on Pelosi to allow remote voting so lawmakers have to go on the record in their support or opposition to spending legislation.
