Nancy Pelosi Calls Republican Efforts To Block Voting By Proxy During Pandemic A ‘Sad Stunt’
May 27, 2020
Nancy Pelosi Calls Republican Efforts To Block Voting By Proxy During Pandemic A ‘Sad Stunt’
'House Republicans must stop their dangerous obstruction and join Democrats to save lives, defeat the virus and grow the economy,' she said.
'House Republicans must stop their dangerous obstruction and join Democrats to save lives, defeat the virus and grow the economy,' she said.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called Republican efforts to block voting by proxy a “sad stunt,” HuffPost reported.
Earlier this month, the House of Representatives approved a list of changes to its rules that, among other things, would allow voting members to designate a proxy to vote on their behalf. This was done in order to allow lawmakers to carry out their legislative duties without having to be physically inside the Capitol Building and, by extension, within close contact with other legislators. The move is intended to protect lawmakers against contracting or sharing the coronavirus.
Indeed, already more than 60 Democrat lawmakers have written to the House Clerk to nominate a proxy to vote on their behalf.
However, on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, joined by 20 other Republicans, filed suit to stop the planned voting by proxy, saying it violates the Constitution, which requires voting members to be “present” to cast a vote. Further, Republicans say the planned rule change upends 230 years of legislative tradition of having members vote on their own behalf, rather than via a designee.
“I just filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn Speaker Pelosi’s unconstitutional proxy voting scheme. It could allow as few as 20 Representatives to control the votes of 220. This is NOT the representative democracy our Founders envisioned or what our Constitution allows,” McCarthy tweeted.
In a statement, Pelosi noted that voting by proxy is “fully consistent with the Constitution [and] is supported by expert legal analyses.”
In fact, The New York Times suggested that any attempt at thwarting rules put into place by Congress are likely to survive a court challenge, as the courts have consistently ruled in favor of allowing Congress to set its own rules.
Further, the Bipartisan Policy Center noted that the Senate already allows voting by proxy for committee business. The House of Representatives similarly allowed voting by proxy for committee business, but that power was withdrawn during the Clinton administration, after the new Republican majority and Speaker Newt Gingrich took office. Similarly, the organization also noted that any efforts at allowing voting by proxy on the floor would likely cause a constitutional dispute.
Pelosi, for her part, isn’t having the Republicans’ lawsuit, calling it dangerous obstruction that puts lives at risk.
“As our nation approaches the heartbreaking milestone of 100,000 lives lost to COVID-19, House Republicans must stop their dangerous obstruction and join Democrats to save lives, defeat the virus and grow the economy,” she said.