158 House Members Proxy Voted for $700 Billion ‘Inflation Reduction’ Act

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:

  1. Amodei
  2. Axne
  3. Babin
  4. Bacon
  5. Baird
  6. Barr
  7. Barragán
  8. Bass
  9. Bentz
  10. Bera
  11. Bonamici
  12. Bost
  13. Brooks
  14. Brownley
  15. Buchanan
  16. Bucshon
  17. Budd
  18. Bush
  19. Calvert
  20. Cardenas
  21. Carter (TX)
  22. Cawthorn
  23. Cherfilus-McCormick
  24. Cicilline
  25. Cohen
  26. Comer
  27. Connolly
  28. Conway
  29. Cooper
  30. Crawford
  31. Crist
  32. Curtis
  33. DeFazio
  34. DeGette
  35. DeLauro
  36. DeSaulnier
  37. DesJarlais
  38. Deutch
  39. Diaz-Balart
  40. Doggett
  41. Doyle, Michael F.
  42. Duncan
  43. Dunn
  44. Escobar
  45. Fallon
  46. Flores
  47. Frankel, Lois
  48. Gaetz
  49. Garbarino
  50. Gibbs
  51. Gomez
  52. Gonzales, Tony
  53. Good
  54. Gooden
  55. Gosar
  56. Gottheimer
  57. Granger
  58. Graves
  59. Green (TN)
  60. Harder (CA)
  61. Harris
  62. Hartzler
  63. Herrell
  64. Herrera Beutler
  65. Huffman
  66. Jackson
  67. Jacobs (NY)
  68. Johnson (GA)
  69. Johnson (SD)
  70. Johnson (TX)
  71. Joyce (PA)
  72. Kahele
  73. Keating
  74. Kelly (IL)
  75. Kilmer
  76. Kim (CA)
  77. Kinzinger
  78. Kirkpatrick
  79. Krishnamoorthi
  80. LaHood
  81. LaMalfa
  82. Lamborn
  83. Langevin
  84. Lawrence
  85. Lawson (FL)
  86. Leger Fernandez
  87. Lesko
  88. Letlow
  89. Levin (MI)
  90. Lieu
  91. Lucas
  92. Luetkemeyer
  93. Mace
  94. Manning
  95. Matsui
  96. McBath
  97. McEachin
  98. McHenry
  99. McNerney
  100. Meijer
  101. Meng
  102. Meuser
  103. Miller (WV)
  104. Miller-Meeks
  105. Moore (UT)
  106. Moore (WI)
  107. Moulton
  108. Napolitano
  109. Nehls
  110. Norman
  111. Ocasio-Cortez
  112. Omar
  113. Owens
  114. Palazzo
  115. Panetta
  116. Payne
  117. Phillips
  118. Pingree
  119. Porter
  120. Pressley
  121. Price (NC)
  122. Rice (SC)
  123. Rodgers (WA)
  124. Rogers (KY)
  125. Roybal-Allard
  126. Rush
  127. Sánchez
  128. Sarbanes
  129. Schakowsky
  130. Sherman
  131. Sires
  132. Smith (NJ)
  133. Smith (WA)
  134. Steel
  135. Steube
  136. Suozzi
  137. Swalwell
  138. Taylor
  139. Thompson (PA)
  140. Thompson (CA)
  141. Timmons
  142. Titus
  143. Tlaib
  144. Tonko
  145. Torres (NY)
  146. Trahan
  147. Trone
  148. Van Drew
  149. Van Duyne
  150. Vargas
  151. Wagner
  152. Walberg
  153. Waltz
  154. Watson Coleman
  155. Welch
  156. Wenstrup
  157. Wilson (FL)
  158. 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.

TK

Source: Breitbart News