Proxy war: More than 200 House members voting from home on $1.7 trillion omnibus bill
Virginia Aabram
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Nearly half the House will not physically be in attendance during Friday’s vote on the omnibus bill to fund the government through September.
There are 227 active proxy voting letters for Friday, meaning those lawmakers have said they are unable to be present in the Capitol building and have designated a colleague to vote on their behalf. The proxy voting rule is a pandemic allowance and is meant to only apply to absences related to COVID-19.
WHAT’S IN, AND OUT, OF THE $1.7 TRILLION OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL
Proxy voting tends to increase for the last votes of the week, and Friday’s absences are almost certainly compounded by Christmas approaching this weekend and a snowstorm that grounded thousands of flights over the past few days.
The omnibus bill passed by the Senate Thursday (and that the House hopes to finish on Friday) costs $1.7 trillion, and it was finalized at the last minute following weeks of negotiations.
Proxy voting is a controversial practice that the new Republican House majority will likely end when it takes control in January. Some conservative lawmakers hold that the practice is unconstitutional and cite numerous abuses in which members have taken advantage of it to go on vacation or attend fundraisers. Proponents argue that it ensures constituents are represented even when their lawmakers can’t physically represent them due to illness or family obligations. In practice, members of both parties heavily use it for reasons unrelated to the pandemic.
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In order to have another member vote on their behalf, members must sign a letter stating that they cannot attend “due to the ongoing public health emergency.” The practice was first instituted in the spring of 2020 after the pandemic began, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the House sergeant-at-arms have extended it through the end of the current Congress.