158 lawmakers opted to vote through proxy during a period when there was controversy over the possibility, given that the Senate has not yet required its members to cast their votes in person.
House members are now able to vote through proxy, meaning that a person in the House has the ability to vote for an absent member. This kind of voting began in 2020 due to the onset of the coronavirus.
However, instead of the ability to vote by proxy in the House closing because the coronavirus epidemic has gotten better across the nation, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has repeatedly extended it in the name of the “public health emergency.”
The Website of the Clerk said:
In accordance with House Resolution 8, and in the specified time frame set as a covered period by the Speaker the 4th of January, 2021, the Office of the Clerk is providing and verifying certain letters that define, modify, and rescind the authority to vote remotely by proxy. The members designated as proxy voters can only vote for other members after receiving specific instructions with regard to every vote.
Breitbart News published on Friday prior to the vote that the Clerk of House had 190 member's proxy letters filed at the time of the vote, and on the night prior, there were 175 proxy letters received. The numbers fluctuated throughout the day and night as the members submitted new proxy letters, or filed to end their old ones.
This may be due in part to the fact that members had an active proxy ballot that was never actually needed but not being active in the event the members decided to stay away from town.
Furthermore, having an active proxy document does not mean they'll not be able to vote in person. But, the majority in the proxy letters have been submitted to the Clerk over the last few weeks, since members recently began their vacations.
For example, on Friday of last week, CNN reported that Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R) was at the Capitol along with House Republican Intel Committee members for a news conference around 9:00 am. At noon, he was at Dulles airport and allowed another to vote for him, because he was carrying an active proxy vote letter.
The 158 members who cast their votes through proxy according to the Clerk's website included:
- Amodei
- Axne
- Babin
- Bacon
- Baird
- Barr
- Barragan
- Bass
- Bentz
- Bera
- Bonamici
- Bost
- Brooks
- Brownley
- Buchanan
- Bucshon
- Budd
- Bush
- Calvert
- Cardenas
- Carter (TX)
- Cawthorn
- Cherfilus-McCormick
- Cicilline
- Cohen
- Comer
- Connolly
- Conway
- Cooper
- Crawford
- Crist
- Curtis
- DeFazio
- DeGette
- DeLauro
- DeSaulnier
- DesJarlais
- Deutch
- Diaz-Balart
- Doggett
- Doyle, Michael F.
- Duncan
- Dunn
- Escobar
- Fallon
- Flores
- Frankel, Lois
- Gaetz
- Garbarino
- Gibbs
- Gomez
- Gonzales, Tony
- Good
- Gooden
- Gosar
- Gottheimer
- Granger
- Graves
- Green (TN)
- Harder (CA)
- Harris
- Hartzler
- Herrell
- Herrera Beutler
- Huffman
- Jackson
- Jacobs (NY)
- Johnson (GA)
- Johnson (SD)
- Johnson (TX)
- Joyce (PA)
- Kahele
- Keating
- Kelly (IL)
- Kilmer
- Kim (CA)
- Kinzinger
- Kirkpatrick
- Krishnamoorthi
- LaHood
- LaMalfa
- Lamborn
- Langevin
- Lawrence
- Lawson (FL)
- Leger Fernandez
- Lesko
- Letlow
- Levin (MI)
- Lieu
- Lucas
- Luetkemeyer
- Mace
- Manning
- Matsui
- McBath
- McEachin
- McHenry
- McNerney
- Meijer
- Meng
- Meuser
- Miller (WV)
- Miller-Meeks
- Moore (UT)
- Moore (WI)
- Moulton
- Napolitano
- Nehls
- Norman
- Ocasio-Cortez
- Omar
- Owens
- Palazzo
- Panetta
- Payne
- Phillips
- Pingree
- Porter
- Pressley
- Price (NC)
- Rice (SC)
- Rodgers (WA)
- Rogers (KY)
- Roybal-Allard
- Rush
- Sanchez
- Sarbanes
- Schakowsky
- Sherman
- Sires
- Smith (NJ)
- Smith (WA)
- Steel
- Steube
- Suozzi
- Swalwell
- Taylor
- Thompson (PA)
- Thompson (CA)
- Timmons
- Titus
- Tlaib
- Tonko
- Torres (NY)
- Trahan
- Trone
- Van Drew
- Van Duyne
- Vargas
- Wagner
- Walberg
- Waltz
- Watson Coleman
- Welch
- Wenstrup
- Wilson (FL)
- Wilson (SC)
Breitbart News published on Thursday that the Republican management was whipping their votes in order to make sure that no Republicans would vote in favor of the bill. Breitbart News reported on Friday:
Because the bill is based on budget reconciliation, Republicans can't stop Democrats from adopting the bill. However, the top House Republican staffer said they intend to make Democrats “own” the bill and stress the negative effects that the law has.
The law would:
- Let Medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs
- Provide an extension of the improved Obamacare benefits to three more years. It could cost $64 billion.
- Reduce the deficit by $300 billion.
- The tax rate is increasing as America has just entered an economic recession.
- Increase funding for the IRS by $80 billion which would make the IRS bigger than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol combined.
- Create billions of dollars of green energy funds that will allow Federal government officials to distribute.
- The bill includes budget disguises and false offsets that disguise the true price of the bill.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) -who has stated numerous occasions that he'd eliminate proxy voting should the Republicans win back the House in January was also quoted in March as saying that “proxy voting” would better be called “convenience” voting, since members of both parties have utilized the term in this way, other than as a measure to prevent an upcoming health emergency, which is exactly what they say.
In actuality, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) made use of $700 billion of the “Inflation Reduction” Act as an example on Thursday, and said to Breitbart News that it is “absurd” that “lazy” Democrats and Republicans are planning to apply the “bullshit” proxy voting rule on the “garbage” Inflation Reduction Act which doesn't assist in the fight against inflation instead of adhering to the Constitution and voting in person.
