How lawmakers “quiet” Congress

When the US House of Representatives moved to allow lawmakers to vote remotely in May 2020, it was an important step toward maintaining government performance during a dangerous and uncertain pandemic.

After more than two years, the country is largely back to pre-COVID normal. Even Capitol Hill itself has reopened its doors to visitors. However, remote voting is still in effect — with lawmakers using the privilege more than ever.

A comprehensive review of this year’s US House of Representatives voting data, conducted by The Daily Beast, shows that the vast majority of lawmakers have voted remotely at least once.

Since January, 370 members of Congress, nearly 83% of House members, have cast their votes remotely. These members combined remotely have voted 23,154 times – vastly surpassing the 17,263 remote votes cast in 2021.

A large minority of House of Representatives members voted remotely on a regular basis. seventy seven Lawmakers — overwhelmingly Democrats — voted remotely on 100 or more votes out of the 420 registered votes in the year. This means that roughly one in six lawmakers were not present on the US Capitol for at least 25 percent of the roll call in the House this year.

Among a small group of members, remote voting is the rule rather than the exception. Representative Albio Ceres (D-NJ), for example, voted 398 times, or 94 percent of all votes, making him the undisputed champion of remote voting. Together, the 10 lawmakers who used proxy voting the most benefited from the privilege, garnering 2,353 votes.

Josh Shavits, a law professor at Georgetown University who studies the workings of the US House of Representatives, said the proxy voting numbers for this year are “stark.” “It’s obviously not great for an organization to have so many members who aren’t around,” he said.

Under the rules, a member may designate a colleague to vote as their proxy if they submit a letter confirming that they are unable to participate in person due to the COVID pandemic. In August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) extended proxy voting privileges through September 26, citing an “ongoing public health emergency.” (The smaller, less disorganized Senate voted in person throughout the pandemic.)

While a few of the most frequent absentee voters have legitimate COVID-related reasons for moving away from Capitol Hill, many don’t. Since 2020, the acting members have voted to free up their schedules for everything from Hit the campaign path and interviews with Follow-up to side congestion in the field of commercial aviation And the Taking unauthorized trips to Afghanistan.

Ironically, a policy that was originally intended as a way to keep members of Congress working in the face of a pandemic has turned into a way for them to avoid showing up in Washington for action.

latest Gallup Survey Finding that more than half of the US workforce are “quitting quietly” – barely meeting minimum expectations for a job while they psychologically separate from their work – it appears that the House of Representatives may not be immune.

On top of widespread proxy voting, Congress continues to benefit from other pandemic-era measures that allow members to move away from Capitol Hill. Committees meet in person but members have the option to participate in hearings – and vote on legislation in committee meetings – remotely. More than two years after the pandemic first emerged, a lawmaker can still fulfill the essential obligations of the job without leaving his home.

Of course, the epidemic is by no means over. Members of Congress continue to feel sick from COVID, which could derail carefully crafted legislative plans in the House and Senate, where majorities are weak. However, few of the proxy voting expected it to last as long as it did.

“Overall, this is really bad for the institution,” said Matt Glassman, a senior fellow at the Institute of Governmental Affairs at Georgetown University. He said proxy voting takes members out of the policy-making process.

“If you’re not there to vote, who the hell wants to do committee work?” Glassman said. “It’s bad for the output of Congress, and it’s bad for the establishment of Congress.”

And while members of both parties gladly voted by proxy, the practice is more prevalent among Democrats than Republicans.

Of the 77 representatives who lost more than 100 personal votes, 61 are Democrats. Of the 10 largest proxy voters, eight are Democrats. (The acting Republican voter was the late Jackie Wallorsky of Indiana, who was killed in a car accident in her borough last month.)

Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who proudly boasts that he never voted by proxy, has long tried to exploit Democrats’ use of the process for his party’s political gain. In May 2020, McCarthy quickly launched a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of proxy voting. It remained a talking point for the Republican Party until January 2022, when the Supreme Court refused to take it up.

As the Republican Party works to regain control of the House of Representatives in this fall’s elections, McCarthy pointed to proxy voting to say the Democratic majority is not doing its job. Whatever the initial intent for a proxy vote, that suffices, McCarthy said at a recent Rules Committee hearing discussing the practice. “It is time for this body to lead by example, show up to act as Congress has done since its inception, and end proxy voting once and for all.”

Some Democrats, like Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN), agree that proxy voting in the COVID era has reached its expiration date.

“As a proponent of enterprise modernization, we will benefit well with a discussion about the future use of remote voting, virtual hearings, testimonials, and other efficiencies made possible by technology,” Phillips told The Daily Beast. “However, I believe that pandemic-inspired proxy voting should come to an end.”

Members have provided a lot of fodder for critics of proxy voting in the past year. Representative Kay Cahilli (D-Hai), for example, has voted remotely about 64 percent of the time — the 11th-most-repeated number of any member. Investigation From Honolulu Civil House It found that Cahill, among other things, was spending time in Hawaii to continue working as a commercial airline pilot while his colleagues cast their votes in Washington.

In August 2021, during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Representatives Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Peter Major (R-Michigan) made an unauthorized trip into the country. They both voted by proxy, citing COVID, when they were in Kabul. Moulton ranks 43rd on the proxy voting list, having done so 144 times.

It is “almost inevitable” that proxy voting is abused, Shavitz said, given how difficult it is to thoroughly examine every written justification for missing a vote. “Once you get to that point,” he said, “you simply accept that it will get used to any time someone doesn’t want to be in town.”

Even if many in Congress believe proxy voting is no longer necessary or feel it reflects poorly on the establishment, few observers believe that rampant remote voting will be a major issue for Democrats in this fall’s elections. In the leadership’s eyes, the upside to this practice — ensuring that all 219 Democrats can vote, no matter what — likely outweighs any political risks given that Democrats have such a thin majority to work with.

Although this majority has accomplished a lot legislatively, proxy voting has made some strange optics in their happiest moment. When House Democrats passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act in August — a major achievement for the party that came after a year of painstaking negotiations — a third of members voted remotely, making in-city celebrations more muted than they might otherwise have been. also.

While tourists and out-of-town guests again crowd the corridors of the Capitol, the routine absence of dozens of House members during each week of legislative work is still evident.

The lanes are especially quiet on Thursdays and Fridays—usually the last votes of the week—as members take advantage of proxy privileges to cut short a day out of Congress’s already short working week. The Ribbon Association, a center-right think tank, published an analysis in December 2021 that found absentee voting was more prevalent at the beginning and end of session weeks.

The fact that proxy voting was more prevalent in 2022 than it was in 2021 may have something to do with two major factors unrelated to COVID: retirement and the course of the election campaign in the year.

Many voters of the most prolific agents decided to retire from politics or chose to seek a different position. Six of the top 10 acting electors will not return to Congress next year, like Sires. Representatives Charlie Crist (D-Florida) and Tom Suzzi (D-New York) are vying or trying to run for governor of their home state while losing hundreds of personal votes. (after, after face criticism For abusing proxy voting during the campaign, Krist actually quit from Congress two weeks ago.)

Of the 77 MPs who have voted remotely more than 100 times, a third have either retired or are looking for another position. Shavits said the proxy vote “gave members a way to retire two years ago and retain their position.”

While the franchise in theory could free members to spend more time in their regions to campaign for re-election, very few of those facing competitive races take advantage of the proxy privilege, perhaps out of concern of being attacked over the issue.

There are only two incumbents in the battle races among the top 50 most frequent proxy voters: Representatives Katie Porter (CA) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

It is unclear if or when Pelosi will end the proxy vote. A spokesman for the Speaker of the House of Representatives did not respond to a query regarding this story.

A Republican takeover of the House of Representatives could bring an abrupt end to the practice, but experts like Georgetown’s Glassman are skeptical whether McCarthy can put this particular genie back in the bottle.

“The challenge is, have a lot of Republicans become too happy about this?” asked Glassman. The danger in proxy voting — as with other changes that have given members more flexibility and time away from the Capitol — is that “people will love it,” he said.

Many observers see the extended era of proxy voting not as a cause of Congressional dysfunction but as a symptom of it. In recent decades, the House of Representatives has transformed from a member-driven body to one in which a small circle of powerful leaders, in both parties, make the increasingly larger decisions.

Chaffetz said that ranks and file members are increasingly seen as little more than a vote.

“If they see themselves as a vote of, well, well, why do they need to do any of the other things?” He said. “If they can vote from home, why not?”

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