National Review
Why does Congress refuse to do its job personally?
The emergency powers, we are always told, will be reserved for emergencies only. During the early stages of the pandemic, the House of Representatives considered a historic change to the rules to allow members to vote “by proxy” (ie, a member physically present in the House voting on behalf of an absent member). The Democratic leadership in the Chamber was clear at the time: “The changes we are talking about here are not permanent. . . . They are temporary, to be used only during this pandemic. As soon as we finish, we are back to working side by side and in person. ”Skeptical of that claim, the Republicans came together in opposition to the proposal. Not a single Republican voted in favor of House of Representative Nancy Pelosi’s proxy scheme, and in fact 161 Republicans – nearly 82 percent of the 116th Congress conference – joined a lawsuit filed by Republican leader Kevin McCarthy arguing against the constitutionality of proxy voting. Our skepticism proved to be justified. Proxy voting was set to end after 45 days, but President Pelosi extended the practice until the end of the 116th Congress, and was again permitted by the rules governing the 117th Congress. But both constitutional issues and practices must end a practice that has lost its emergency usefulness and now threatens to contribute to Congress’ weakness. Some of the problems with proxy voting are constitutional. One of our many concerns includes the fact that lawmakers cannot be counted as “gifts” during the official affairs of the House if they are not physically on Capitol Hill. Another defect of proxy voting is that appointing a proxy constitutes an unconstitutional delegation of voting power to another member. As my colleagues and I argued in the process, “The United States Congress has never before shied away from its constitutional duty to meet in the nation’s capital and conduct people’s business in times of danger and national crisis. So it was for more than two centuries. So far. “In addition to these constitutional concerns, there are practical problems with proxy voting. First, proxy voting concentrates even more power in the hands of the House leadership. Under the proxy rules, a single member can represent up to ten others by proxy – meaning that the majority of the House could pass legislation unilaterally with only 20 members present. Second, the proxy vote sends a clear signal that Congress cannot lead by example during the pandemic. across the country they were forced to close and workers were separated into arbitrary “essential” and “non-essential” groups, Congress effectively declared itself non-essential in allowing proxy voting. Third, members of Congress are abusing voting by proxy and lying in the process. The rules governing proxy voting made it clear that members could only designate a proxy pain if they were “unable to physically attend the proceedings in the City Council” due to the “public health emergency”. Even so, members voted by proxy simply to carry out extracurricular activities, such as participating in space launches. At the end of the 116th Congress, 186 members – and almost 75% of the Democratic bench – appointed a prosecutor at least once. In early 2021, with proxy voting still allowed, Republicans also began to sacrifice the principle for convenience. In addition, Democrats used the concept of “committee workweeks” to conduct virtual committee hearings while Congress is not in session. The result is that Congress must be in session for less than 110 days in 2021 – at least 20 days less than any previous session of Congress since 2013. This pandemic “emergency” measure now seems increasingly to be a permanent practice, although vaccines have been available to members of Congress since mid-December and infections are decreasing across the country. Unfortunately, many members of Congress would like to vote by permanent proxy. The institution’s dirty secret, as Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute said, is that Congress is weak because its members want it to be weak. Congressional power used to be concentrated in committees, where presidents exercised control over their respective jurisdictions. Members who worked hard and conducted the unglamorous but vital work of legislation and oversight rose through the ranks and accumulated prestige. Power and prestige are now more likely to come from hot tweets, vigorous TV hits or Instagram video views. Achieving political celebrity status on List C has become more important for many members than overseeing and considering legislation. Proxy voting spills kerosene on this trend for Congress to become just a media and fundraising platform. Consider when members decide to vote by proxy. Most members of Congress return to their districts over the weekend, so working weeks are punctuated by “arrival” and “outbound” days. On peak days, members are 10 percent more likely to vote by proxy than midweek. On fly-out days, the use of proxy voting is 22 percent higher. This was on full display last month, when more than a dozen of my Republican colleagues signed proxy forms certifying that the pandemic removed them from their functions in Congress, only to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida, the same day that Nancy Pelosi repressed a $ 1.9 trillion monstrosity in a bill in Congress. Many of these members have already been critical of the proxy vote or parties to the lawsuit against the practice. Thus, the Democrats’ falsehood produces an equal and opposite reaction from the Republicans. We must end proxy voting before closing Congress. Today, I will be introducing legislation to change House rules and eliminate proxy voting. This is a rescue mission not only for Congress as an institution, but also for the Republican Party in particular. After losing control of the White House, the Senate and the House, Republicans must offer more than opposition to Democratic exaggeration. We must regain America’s confidence by providing a positive and unifying vision for the country. We cannot provide this by chasing celebrities. We must do hard legislative work to develop solutions that can reverse rising health costs, take our children back to school (and fix schools that are failing to educate them) and unify the free world against the Chinese Communist Party. All of this implies a necessary preliminary step: we have to go to work, personally. Because the decrease in Congress and the Us Weekly – ization of its members is an emergency, which allows the Executive Branch to exercise emergency powers permanently. If we don’t show up for work, the emergency will get worse. We cannot restore the role of Congress as the dominant branch of government – and, by extension, reduce the power of the federal government – if we do not restore the physical presence of members of Congress. It’s time to end proxy voting.