House lawmakers won’t have to show up in the Capitol until next year.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday extended a rule allowing House members who are not in the Capitol to vote by proxy.
The rule was set to expire on Monday. Pelosi extended it until Dec. 31, citing the coronavirus pandemic.
Democrats voted to allow proxy voting on May 15 in order to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
It broke a 231-year-old requirement that House lawmakers debate and vote on legislation in person. The rule allows House members in the chamber to vote for up to 10 other lawmakers who designate them as their proxy.
A provision in the legislation allows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, to extend the proxy voting rule unilaterally, and she has now done so four times.
In the letter to Democrats, Pelosi cited a letter from House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving “that a public health emergency due to the novel coronavirus is still in effect.”
More than a dozen lawmakers and more than 80 Capitol staff have contracted the coronavirus since the outbreak began.
House Republicans oppose the rule and point to several Democrats who appear to have utilized proxy voting in order to campaign, take vacations, or deal with family matters.
House Democrats are now weighing whether to allow lawmakers to vote electronically from afar. Democrats say they have found a way to allow lawmakers to vote securely from an electronic device.
