ORLANDO, Florida — A group of Republicans who are expected to participate in CPAC this weekend skipped House proceedings using a vote-by-proxy mechanism that the GOP heavily criticized last year.
Among those Republicans who wrote to the House clerk this week were Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Jim Banks of Indiana, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, and Greg Steube of Florida, according to CNN and letters online.
Several of the letters, shared on Twitter, cited “the ongoing public health emergency” or being “physically unable to attend the proceedings” as the rationale for picking a proxy to vote for them under HR 8.
Reps. Greg Steube, Matt Gaetz, Ted Budd and Madison Cawthorn, all slated to speak at CPAC today, filed proxy letters stating they are “unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber” due to “the ongoing public health emergency” pic.twitter.com/1qleT56XYQ
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) February 26, 2021
All of these Republicans appear on the CPAC schedule as of Friday afternoon. Gaetz and Cawthorn were among those who spoke at the annual conservative gathering, taking place in Florida this year, on Friday.
The Washington Examiner reached out to all six Republicans for comment.
HOUSE MEMBERS USE PROXY VOTING TO ESCAPE FOR CAMPAIGNING, BOAT RIDE, AND SPACEX LAUNCH
“After Democrats rearranged the House schedule with extremely late notice, Rep. Budd was forced to proxy vote for the first time. Rep. Budd remains philosophically opposed to proxy voting, which is why he has already donated his congressional salary for the days he proxy-voted to the North Carolina Restaurant Workers Relief Fund to support restaurants who were shut down during the pandemic. Mentioning the pandemic in the letter is the standard language that both parties are required to use to proxy vote,” Budd’s communications director, Curtis Kalin, said in an email.
The Washington Examiner asked Steube about the move on Friday at CPAC. The Florida congressman said he and other Republicans believe the proxy vote measure to be unconstitutional but added, “The mindset is, we’re following the rules as was passed by the House.”
He noted the House Republicans challenged the House rules change but lost in court and are now appealing the decision.
“We don’t agree with them, [and] I voted against the rules, but it’s the rules, and we lost in court,” Steube said. “So if we have the opportunity to take advantage of doing that, then the members are going to do it.”
Gaetz’s spokesperson pointed to a Washington Examiner op-ed in which he advocated for the concept of proxy voting, arguing that doing so would allow lawmakers to spend more time in the district they represent and would diminish the power of lobbyists.
“Time at home reminds us of our priorities and our purpose. All humans innately want to please those who are in our proximity. If we spend more time with our constituents, we will be a more representative body,” he said.
This vote-by-proxy system was challenged by Republicans when it was introduced last year, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Still, GOP leaders, such as Reps. Kevin McCarthy of California and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, criticized Democrats’ use of the vote-by-proxy mechanism last year, whom they accused at one point of taking advantage of the setup (or in Scalise’s words, played “hooky”) to watch a rocket launch.
Yesterday 2 Dems got caught using Pelosi’s proxy voting scheme to play hooky.
They claimed they couldn’t show up to work “due to the ongoing public health emergency”—but then went to attend the rocket launch.
This isn’t Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s the United States Congress. pic.twitter.com/C2NuRDIcKw
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) May 28, 2020
