The era of virtual Congress has arrived.
House lawmakers voted along party lines Friday to make a historic change to the rules that will for the first time permit proxy voting on the House floor and remote business, including committee hearings and markups conducted virtually.
“This resolution will enable the House to conduct its work in full without risking the health and safety of Americans in communities across the country, from which members come and to which they will return,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said during an emergency House session convened to debate the legislation.
The vote was 217-189. All Republicans, three Democrats, and Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash, of Michigan, voted against it.
Democrats drafted the measure in response to the coronavirus. The House has met only three times since mid-March due to the threat of the outbreak, and lawmakers are eager to find a way to conduct business without flying back to Washington, D.C.
Republicans mostly opposed the measure, arguing the House should return to work in person and employ social distancing guidelines to ensure safety rather than toss out the in-person voting requirement that dates back to the first House meeting in 1789.
“The founders would be ashamed of today,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, told reporters at a press conference in the Capitol Friday. McCarthy called a virtual Congress, “connected to the internet, but disconnected from the American people.”
The resolution makes several major changes to the House rules. It would allow each lawmaker on the House floor to vote in place of up to 10 absent lawmakers as long as specific instructions are conveyed to the House clerk and the lawmaker who is present in the chamber.
The resolution also permits committee business, including hearings and markups of legislation conducted virtually, and it authorizes the speaker to allow full remote voting by all lawmakers unilaterally as soon as House officials find a secure technology.
The rules change expires in 45 days, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi can renew it without a new House vote.
Democrats argued the changes would promote safety while also ensuring the House can function.
The Supreme Court began conducting virtual hearings earlier this month, and several state legislatures are also working remotely, said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat.
“These are essential reforms during this pandemic and key to giving the American public the accountability and transparency they deserve,” he said. “We are behind here, and it’s time to step up. There’s nothing extreme about working this way and adapting during and emergency, just like all Americans have.”
The House passed the resolution following a nine-hour hearing on Thursday. Lawmakers on the Rules Committee sat spaced several seats apart in an expansive hearing room, and most wore masks.
Republicans argued the House should return to regular in-person sessions beginning with smaller subcommittees. The proxy voting scheme, they pointed out, would allow legislation to pass with only 22 lawmakers present in the chamber.
On Friday, most of the 430 sitting lawmakers returned to the Capitol to vote, arriving in the chamber in small groups to avoid crowding.
McCarthy said the House could easily continue working safely without having to abandon the Capitol.
“Aren’t we proving today that we don’t need a virtual Congress?” McCarthy said. “In the middle of this virus, the House is conducting its business while following the health guidelines.”
