Tensions bubble in House GOP over proxy voting hypocrisy – By Emily Brooks (Washington Examiner) / Mar 02 2021
Reps. Chip Roy and Mike Gallagher are calling out their Republican colleagues for using proxy voting rules in order to get out of voting while being in Orlando, Florida, for the Conservative Political Action Conference, standing in contrast to the predominant GOP stance against proxy voting.
“Democrats in particular are destroying the institution by doing this — we don’t meet, we don’t debate, we don’t amend. But even a number of my GOP colleagues are now complicit and have given in to the Democrats recklessness,” Roy, a Texas Republican, said in a statement on Monday, adding that it is an “unconstitutional attack on a functional Congress” and allows “members to avoid their responsibility to meet in D.C. to do their jobs.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats implemented vote-by-proxy rules last year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which prompted heavy criticism from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other powerful Republicans. Republicans unsuccessfully sued over the rule, which they said was unconstitutional, and pointed out instances during which Democrats were absent from the House clearly because of convenience rather than health concerns.
But last week, several Republicans — Reps. Ted Budd, Matt Gaetz, Greg Steube of Florida and Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina — used the system not to avoid travel out of coronavirus concerns but to be in Orlando for CPAC, where they had speaking engagements, missing a vote on the massive $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief legislation.
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