from the Telegraph Herald

https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/politics/article_11fbe2a6-a8fd-5523-befa-1d74be0edc95.html

 

Politics: Hinson fights proxy voting

By Benjamin Fisher

December 26, 2021

 

In U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, has spent a great deal of time in the close of 2021 trying to end the option of proxy voting in Congress, put in place early in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Via the policy, representatives can grant authority to a colleague in Washington, D.C., to vote for them, while they remain in their home state. The proxy option provided means for representatives to still do their jobs while staying home in case of infection or exposure to COVID-19. Hinson, though, says it has been abused.

 

“Proxy voting was started in May of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hinson said in a recent video address. “But now, here we are, over a year and a half later, proxy voting is being abused by members of both parties. Proxy voting wasn’t intended to be common practice. It wasn’t intended to be permanent. But Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi just extended it into next year. Members of Congress are no longer using proxy voting because of COVID-19 concerns — they are using it because coming back here to Washington, D.C., is inconvenient.”

 

 This issue has not gotten a lot of traction among other politicians in recent months. But a long list of Republicans joined the House minority leader in a lawsuit in opposition to the practice, one that the U.S. Supreme Court is soon expected to consider.

 

And Hinson has taken to posting regularly about it on Facebook and issuing statements against the practice, calling for its end.

 

“Iowans are back at work, in person. Hospital workers, truck drivers, grocery store clerks, child care providers and teachers aren’t doing their jobs by proxy — and neither should members of Congress,” she said in the release. “I’ve never voted by proxy and I never will.”

 

The topic has become more of a discussion among conservative organizations, lobbying groups and think tanks.

 

Republican think tank The Ripon Society spent a good deal of time studying the use of proxy voting, insinuating that it was the only way Democrat Pelosi could maintain her party’s slim majority in the U.S. House. In its study, Ripon Society found that proxy voting had become a regular activity for many representatives whether or not they had a COVID-19 scare and that use of proxy voting just so happened to coincide more with the last few work days of each week.

 

Among tri-state lawmakers, all but Hinson — on both sides of the aisle — have used proxy voting from time to time.

 

According to congressional records, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., had filed the most letters of proxy, at 45. U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., had filed 10. U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill. (who is located in what will be Illinois’ 16th District and will include Jo Daviess County starting in 2023) had filed eight. U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., had filed four. U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa (who is running for Iowa’s new First Congressional District, which will contain Jackson and Jones counties) filed one. Any of these proxy days could have held multiple votes, however.

 

SOURCE: https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/politics/article_11fbe2a6-a8fd-5523-befa-1d74be0edc95.html