Republican rips GOP lawmakers for voting by proxy from CPAC

Source: The Hill | March 1, 2021 | Cristina Marcos

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) on Monday criticized lawmakers for using the proxy voting system implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to skip floor votes for reasons unrelated to their health, including fellow House Republicans who attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday.

Many Republicans have warmed to proxy voting in the last few months after previously launching a lawsuit last year that challenged it as unconstitutional and arguing that members of Congress should show up to work in person like other essential workers on the front lines of the pandemic.

Those Republicans included 13 who voted by proxy on Friday on the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package and filed letters with the House clerk stating that they were unable to attend floor proceedings “due to the ongoing public health emergency” — but were actually attending CPAC in Orlando, Fla.

Gallagher said in a video posted to Twitter that proxy voting is “destroying Congress” and questioned the need to continue allowing the system — which was implemented so that lawmakers could vote remotely if they were sick, quarantining or otherwise unable to travel due to the pandemic — now that many members of Congress are vaccinated.

“We had a bunch of Republicans go to CPAC on Friday. Democrats have been abusing this. The numbers go up on fly-out days. It totally undermines any legitimate need for proxy voting. More to the point, I would like to see how many members who are proxy voting have already been vaccinated,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher expressed concern that proxy voting would result in House members spending even less time on Capitol Hill building relationships with one another to facilitate the basic responsibilities of legislating.

“I am seriously concerned that proxy voting is now going to become a permanent feature of Congress, meaning that Congress is going to be permanently dysfunctional and fake in many ways. People can pretend they’re actually doing their job while flying all over the country raising money and raising their social media profile. It is long past time to end proxy voting, which I believe is unconstitutional. Let’s get back to the basics of legislating and oversight in Congress, which requires you to be there in person. Stop the proxy voting. Stop the insanity,” Gallagher said.

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The 13 Republicans scheduled to speak at CPAC who voted by proxy on Friday were Reps. Gaetz, Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Ted Budd (N.C.), Jim Banks (Ind.), Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Mark Green (Tenn.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Darrell Issa (Calif.), Ronny Jackson (Texas), Mike Kelly (Pa.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Devin Nunes (Calif.) and Greg Steube (Fla.).

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