The House won't be considering remote voting this week after all
The House of Representatives reportedly won't be trying to approve remote voting this week after all amid objections from Republicans.
After the chair of the House Rules Committee, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), last week recommended the House implement a rule change temporarily allowing members to vote by proxy during the coronavirus pandemic, the House was expected to vote on doing so this week, The New York Times reported. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) reportedly informed lawmakers about this timeline, telling reporters, "We want to be able to do the people's work, notwithstanding the directions to remain at distance."
But as Republicans objected, the plan for a vote this week has reportedly been dropped. CNN's Manu Raju cites a leadership aide as saying that after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spoke with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), "she and McCarthy are tasking a bipartisan group of House lawmakers to review remote voting by proxy and reopening the House," but "the House will no longer consider remote voting by proxy this week."
Politico reports that Democrats did expect they'd have enough support to approve the change, but Pelosi is now "backing off." Pelosi had previously said that any such rule change would need to be bipartisan, The Washington Post notes.
McGovern had proposed letting lawmakers authorize other lawmakers to vote for them during the health crisis if they're "unable to travel to Washington due to the pandemic," providing "specific instructions for each vote" with "no ability to give a general proxy." But the House Rules Committee's top Republican, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), was among those in the GOP who objected to the idea, The Hill reports, saying this week, "I believe we already have existing tools to continue the people's work without introducing brand-new, constitutionally untested processes that risk erosion of our normal practice."
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