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- More than a dozen GOP members voted by proxy while speaking at a large conservative conference.
- Their proxy notices all cited “the ongoing public health emergency”.
- A group of GOP lawmakers sued the proxy system in 2020.
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More than a dozen members of Congress speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, this weekend nominated other members to vote on their behalf during their absence citing the COVID-19 pandemic .
Active proxy letters filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives show that 13 GOP representatives who spoke on Friday or who are due to speak on Saturday or Sunday have appointed proxies to vote on their behalf.
In all letters of proxy, first reported by CNN, members on the schedule to speak at CPAC in Orlando, Fla., All attest that they are “unable to physically attend debates in the House in due to the ongoing public health emergency. ”
Members include high-profile Republicans such as Reps Devin Nuñes and Darrel Issa from California, Reps Greg Steube and Matt Gaetz from Florida, Rep. Jim Banks from California, and Rep. Madison Cawthorn from North Carolina.
Notably, the United States House is expected to vote Friday night on the American Rescue Act, President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid program.
The proxy voting process, designated in House Resolution 8, was created at the start of the pandemic primarily to allow members sick with COVID-19, quarantined after exposure to COVID-19, or otherwise unable to to travel, to be able to vote. by a current colleague.
Some of the Republicans who showed up to vote by proxy have already criticized the system for giving Congress a pass not to work.
Rep. Ted Budd from North Carolina, who spoke to CPAC on Friday and appointed a colleague as proxy, previously criticized proxy voting as “unconstitutional and wrong” and even introduced a bill, the No Pay for Proxy Voting Act, which would have reduced the salaries of lawmakers who used the proxy system.
“After Democrats rearranged the House schedule on extremely late notice, Representative Budd was forced to vote by proxy for the first time,” Budd’s office said in a statement to ABC News. “Representative Budd remains philosophically opposed to proxy voting, which is why he has already donated his salary to Congress for the days he voted by proxy to the North Carolina Restaurant Workers Relief Fund to support restaurants that have been closed. during the pandemic. “
Representative of Minority House Leader Kevin McCarthy and a group of House Republicans have also filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the proxy system as unconstitutional.
A federal judge in Washington, DC dismissed the lawsuit in August 2020, ruling that courts lacked standing to rule on internal congressional functions protected by the speech and debate clause. The Republicans subsequently appealed the lawsuit to the United States Court of Appeals in the DC circuit.
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