Fellow Conservative,

Good Saturday morning!

Last week, Nancy Pelosi issued a rule change allowing members to vote “by proxy” for the first time in House history. Under these new rules, each representative is able to cast a vote on behalf of up to ten colleagues.

According to The Heritage Foundation legal experts:

This new House rule creates the strange situation of establishing a quorum by counting members as present who are, in fact, absent. It allows the House to do business with as few as 20 members present, with each controlling the votes of 10 others. The only reason to attempt something so radical is the fear of failure under the traditional legislative practice that the Constitution requires and Congress has always followed.

Conservatives have legitimate concerns about how this rule concentrates more power into fewer hands. And on Tuesday, House Republican leaders—including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise, and Conference Chair Liz Cheney—filed a lawsuit in the D.C. District Court challenging the dubious legality of this new rule.

The broader point remains that all across America, Congress’ constituents are working. If America’s essential workers can show up to do their job, why can’t members of Congress—who have the constitutional responsibility to represent their constituents—travel to the U.S. Capitol, one of the most safe and secure buildings, to cast their vote?

Happening on the Hill

• FISA Reauthorization—On Thursday, the House voted 284-122 to go to conference with the Senate to work out a final FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) reauthorization bill. The House and Senate previously passed different versions of the legislation.
• The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act—Also on Thursday, the House voted 417-1 to provide small businesses with more flexibility in how they use PPP loans. The revised program would provide small businesses with more time to use the loan (from eight-weeks to 24 weeks) and allows for a greater percentage of the loan to be used for non-payroll related expenditures.
• Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act—(Technically an update from last week). After Reps. Tom Tiffany (WI-7) and Mike Garcia (CA-25) won their special elections and were sworn in, they immediately signed the discharge petition in support of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act (H.R. 962). This brings the total signatures up to 205. Only 13 more Congressmen need to sign the discharge petition to force a vote on the House floor.

The ALIGN Act

This week, Heritage Action added co-sponsorship of the Accelerate Long-term Investment Growth Now (ALIGN) Act (S. 3296 / H.R. 6802) to our scorecard.

The ALIGN Act would help rebuild the American economy after the damage of the coronavirus, making permanent one of the most pro-worker, pro-growth policies contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA): full and immediate expensing.

In other words, businesses would be able to expense infrastructure improvements—like updating old buildings or purchasing new machinery or equipment—and write off those expenses on their taxes. By encouraging infrastructure improvements, businesses would stimulate the economy through purchasing goods and paying for services.

• Click HERE to see if your senators have co-sponsored the ALIGN Act.
• Click HERE to see if your representative has co-sponsored the ALIGN Act.

Going forward, we need to make American manufacturing more competitive. And the ALIGN Act creates a tax-free entrepreneurship environment that encourages new, long-term business investment leading to more jobs and higher wages for American workers.

In the midst of an economic crisis, like the one we are currently experiencing brought on by our governments’ response to COVID-19, Congress should advance pro-growth legislation such as the ALIGN Act.

That’s all for this week. Make sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date as we fight for conservative policy solutions in Washington!

- Jessica and the Heritage Action team

Join the fight to advance the conservative agenda.