House Speaker Nancy Pelosi extended proxy voting rules in the House until Dec. 30, which will mark more than a year and seven months of lawmakers being permitted to vote without being physically present.
In an announcement on the extension on Friday, Pelosi noted that the House sergeant-at-arms, in consultation with the Office of the Attending Physician, determined that a public health emergency due to COVID-19 is still in effect.
Voting by proxy has become business as usual in the House of Representatives despite the vast majority of House lawmakers being vaccinated.
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First implemented in May 2020, proxy voting allows members of Congress to designate another member to vote on their behalf if they are “physically unable to attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency.”
Many lawmakers, though, have used proxy voting for the purpose of convenience rather than health concerns.
The week her husband died in May, Ohio Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty was absent from the Capitol. Democratic Reps. Robin Kelly of Illinois and Brenda Lawrence of Michigan cast votes on her behalf.
In February, a group of Republicans used proxy voting rules to vote while they attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida.
Republicans have fought the proxy voting rule, but a federal appeals court dismissed a Republican lawsuit against the Democratic House speaker in July that sought to end proxy voting, saying that the court “dismissed the suit for lack of jurisdiction.”
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In September, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asked the Supreme Court to take up the matter.
“Although the Constitution allows Congress to write its own rules, those rules cannot violate the Constitution itself, including the requirement to actually assemble in person,” McCarthy said in a statement at the time. “To restore the House to its proper legislative role, the Supreme Court must strike down proxy voting.”
