The House of Representatives on Friday voted to pass the $700 billion “Inflation Reduction” Act, which would not reduce inflation, and 158 of the lawmakers voted by proxy.
The 158 lawmakers decided to vote by proxy at a time when there has been controversy surrounding the capability, as the Senate still required its members to vote in person.
House members have been allowed to vote by proxy, which means that one member of the House can cast a vote on behalf of an absent member. This type of voting started in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
But, instead of the proxy voting capability in the House ending as the coronavirus pandemic has improved around the country, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has extended it multiple times, citing the “public health emergency.”
As the Clerk of the House’s website has stated:
Pursuant to House Resolution 8 and the covered period designated by the Speaker on Monday, January 4, 2021, the Office of the Clerk is verifying and making available certain letters designating, changing, and revoking the authority for remote voting by proxy. Members designated as proxies may only cast votes on behalf of other Members once they have received separate exact instruction with respect to each vote.
Breitbart News reported on Friday before the final votes that the Clerk of the House had 190 members’ proxy letters submitted at the time, while the night before there were 175 letters submitted. These numbers changed throughout the night and day as members filed new proxy letters or filed to terminate their previous ones.
This is partially due to members previously having an active proxy voting letter when it was actually needed but left active in case the members wanted to skip out of town.
Additionally, a member having an active proxy letter does not mean they will not vote in person. However, the bulk of the letters were filed with the Clerk in the past couple of weeks, as members have recently started their vacations.
For instance, on Friday, CNN reported that Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R) was in the Capitol with House Republican Intel Committee members for a news conference at 9:30 am. By noon, he was at Dulles airport,allowing someone else to cast his vote, as he had an active proxy voting letter.
The 158 members who voted by proxy per the Clerk’s website were:
- Amodei
- Axne
- Babin
- Bacon
- Baird
- Barr
- Barragán
- 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
- Sánchez
- 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 reported on Thursday that the Republican leadership was whipping votes to ensure no Republicans vote for the bill. Breitbart News added on Friday:
Since the legislation uses budgetary reconciliation, Republicans cannot stop Democrats from passing the bill; however, one senior House Republican staffer explained that they plan on making Democrats “own” the bill, which includes highlighting the deleterious effects of the bill.
The legislation would:
- Allow Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs
- Extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies for three years, which would cost $64 billion
- Reduce the deficit by $300 billion
- Increase taxes while America just entered a recession
- Boost funding for the IRS by $80 billion, which would make the agency larger than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol combined
- Create hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy slush funds for the federal government to dole out
- The bill contains budget gimmicks and fake offsets that mask the true cost of the bill
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — who has said numerous times that he would get rid of proxy voting if the Republicans take back the House in January — also stated in March that the term “proxy voting” would better be termed “convenience” voting, since members of both parties have used it like that, other than a precaution for the health crisis, which is what they claim.
In fact, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), using the $700 billion “Inflation Reduction” Act as an example on Thursday, told Breitbart News that it is “absurd” that “lazy” Democrats and Republicans are going to use the “bullshit” proxy voting rule on the “garbage” Inflation Reduction Act — which does not help inflation — instead of following the Constitution and showing up to vote in person.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.