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from The Daily Beast

[1] [link removed]

How Lawmakers
Are ‘Quiet Quitting’ Congress

The use of proxy voting is more prevalent
than ever, and some lawmakers are hardly showing up at all.
By Sam Brodey

September 13, 2022
When the U.S. House moved to allow lawmakers to vote remotely in
May 2020, it was an important step toward preserving the functioning of
government during a dangerous and uncertain pandemic.
More than two years later, the country has largely returned to a
pre-COVID normal. Capitol Hill itself has even reopened its doors to visitors.
And yet, remote voting remains in full effect—with lawmakers using the
privilege more than ever.
A comprehensive review of voting data this year in the U.S.
House of Representatives, conducted by The Daily Beast, shows that the vast
majority of lawmakers have voted remotely at least once.
Since January, 370 members of Congress, roughly 83 percent of
the chamber, have cast a remote vote. Combined, those members have voted
remotely 23,154 times—greatly surpassing the 17,263 remote votes that were cast
in 2021.
A sizable minority of the House has voted remotely on a regular
basis. Seventy-seven lawmakers—overwhelmingly Democrats—have voted remotely on
100 or more of the year’s 420 recorded roll call votes. That means roughly one
in every six lawmakers has not been present in the U.S. Capitol for at least 25
percent of the roll call votes taken in the House this year.
Among a small handful of members, remote voting is the rule, not
the exception. Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ), for example, has voted remotely 398
times, or 94 percent of all votes, making him the undisputed champion of remote
voting. Together, the 10 lawmakers who have used proxy voting the most have
taken advantage of the privilege for a combined 2,353 votes.
The year’s proxy voting numbers are “stark,” said Josh Chafetz,
a professor of law at Georgetown University who studies the workings of the
U.S. House. “It’s obviously not great for the institution to have so many
members not around,” he said
Under the rules, a member may designate a colleague to vote as
their proxy if they submit a letter attesting that they are unable to
participate in person because of the COVID pandemic. In August, Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA) extended proxy voting privileges through Sept. 26, citing the
“ongoing public health emergency.” (The smaller, less rambunctious Senate has
voted in person throughout the pandemic.)
While a few of the most frequent absentee voters have legitimate
COVID-related reasons to stay clear of Capitol Hill, many do not. Since 2020,
members have voted by proxy in order to free up their schedules for everything
from hitting the campaign trail and doing interviews to pursuing side hustles
in commercial aviation and making unauthorized trips to Afghanistan.
A policy that was originally intended as a way to keep members
of Congress working in a pandemic has, ironically, turned into a way for them
to avoid showing up in Washington for work.
With a recent Gallup survey finding that more than half of the
U.S. workforce is “quiet quitting”—barely meeting the minimum expectations for
a job while psychologically detaching from their work—it appears the House may
not be immune.
On top of widespread proxy voting, Congress is continuing to
make use of other pandemic-era procedures that allow members to stay away from
Capitol Hill. Committees are convening in person but members have the option to
participate in hearings—and vote on legislation in committee meetings—remotely.
Over two years after the pandemic first struck, it remains possible for a
lawmaker to meet the most basic obligations of the job without leaving their
home.
The pandemic is, of course, by no means over. Members of
Congress continue to fall sick with COVID, which can disrupt carefully laid
legislative plans in the House and Senate, where the majorities are thin.
Still, few expected proxy voting to last as long as it has.
“In general, it’s really bad for the institution,” said Matt
Glassman, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs
Institute. Proxy voting, he said, takes members out of the policymaking
process.
“If you aren’t there for votes, who the hell wants to do the
committee work?” Glassman said. “It’s bad for the output of Congress, and it’s
bad for the institution of Congress.”
While members of both parties have gladly voted by proxy, the
practice is far more prevalent among Democrats than Republicans.
Of the 77 lawmakers who missed more than 100 votes in person, 61
of them are Democrats. Of the top 10 proxy voters, eight are Democrats. (The
top Republican proxy voter was the late Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana, who
was killed in a car crash in her district last month.)
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who proudly boasts he has
never voted by proxy, has long tried to exploit Democratic use of the process
for his party’s political gain. In May 2020, McCarthy quickly initiated a
lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of proxy voting. It remained a GOP
talking point until January 2022, when the Supreme Court declined to take it
up.
As the GOP works toward recapturing control of the House in this
fall’s elections, McCarthy has pointed to proxy voting to argue the Democratic
majority isn’t doing its job. “Whatever the initial intent of proxy voting,
enough is enough,” McCarthy said, in a recent Rules Committee hearing
discussing the practice. “It’s time for this body to lead by example, show up
to work as Congress has done since its inception, and end proxy voting once and
for all.”
Some Democrats, like Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), agree that
COVID-era proxy voting has reached its expiration date.
“As a proponent of modernization of the institution, we’d be
well served by a discussion about the future use of remote voting, virtual
hearings and testimony, and other efficiencies made possible by technology,”
Phillips told The Daily Beast. “That said, I believe pandemic-inspired proxy
voting should come to an end.”
Members have provided plenty of fodder for critics of proxy
voting in the past year. Rep. Kai Kahele (D-HI), for example, has voted
remotely roughly 64 percent of the time—the 11th most frequent of any member.
An investigation from Honolulu Civil Beat found that, among other things,
Kahele was spending time back in Hawaii continuing to work as a commercial
airline pilot as colleagues cast his vote in Washington.
In August 2021, during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan,
Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI) made an unauthorized trip to
the country. Both voted by proxy, citing COVID, when they were in Kabul.
Moulton is 43rd on the proxy voting list, having done so 144 times.
Chafetz said it was “almost inevitable” that proxy voting would
be abused, given how hard it would be to thoroughly vet every written
justification for missing a vote. “Once you’re at that stage,” he said, “you’re
basically just accepting that it’s going to get used anytime someone just
doesn't want to be in town.”
Even if many in Congress believe proxy voting is no longer
necessary or feel it reflects poorly on the institution, few observers believe
that rampant remote voting will be a major issue for Democrats in this fall’s
elections. In the eyes of leadership, the upside of the practice—ensuring that
all 219 Democrats can vote, no matter what—likely outweighs any political risks
given that Democrats have such a thin majority to work with.
Although that majority has accomplished a great deal
legislatively, proxy voting has made for some strange optics in their happiest
moments. When House Democrats passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act in
August—a capstone achievement for the party that came after a year of
painstaking negotiation—a third of members voted remotely, making the in-town
celebrations far more muted than they might have otherwise been.
While tourists and out-of-town guests are once again crowding
the hallways of the Capitol, the routine absence of dozens of House members
during each week of legislative business remains palpable.
The corridors are especially quiet on Thursdays and
Fridays—usually the last votes of the week—as members leverage proxy privileges
to shave a day off the already short congressional work week. [2] The Ripon
Society, a
center-right think tank, published an analysis in December 2021 finding
that absentee voting was more prevalent at the beginning and end of in-session
weeks.
The fact that proxy voting has been far more prevalent in 2022
than in 2021 may have to do with two key factors unrelated to COVID:
retirements and the election-year campaign trail.
Many of the most prolific proxy voters decided to retire from
politics or chose to seek a different office. Six of the top 10 proxy voters
will not be returning to Congress next year, like Sires. Reps. Charlie Crist
(D-FL) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) are running, or attempted to run, for governor in
their home states while missing hundreds of in-person votes. (After facing
criticism for abusing proxy voting while campaigning, Crist actually resigned from
Congress two weeks ago.)
Of the 77 lawmakers who voted remotely more than 100 times, a
third are either retiring or seeking another office. Proxy voting, said
Chafetz, “has given members a way to retire two years early and keep their
position.”
While the privilege theoretically could free up members to spend
more time in their districts to campaign for re-election, very few of those
facing competitive races are making use of the proxy privilege, potentially out
of concern for getting attacked over the issue.
There are only two incumbents in battleground races among the
top 50 most frequent proxy voters: Reps. Katie Porter (D-CA) and Henry Cuellar
(D-TX).
It’s unclear if, or when, Pelosi might finally end proxy voting.
A spokesperson for the Speaker did not respond to an inquiry for this story.
A GOP takeover of the House could spell an abrupt end to the
practice, but experts like Georgetown’s Glassman doubt whether McCarthy could
put this particular genie back in the bottle.
“The challenge is, have too many Republicans become too happy
with this?” Glassman asked. The danger with proxy voting—as with other changes
that have given members more flexibility and time away from the Capitol
building—is that “people would come to like it,” he said.
Many observers see the extended era of proxy voting not as a
cause of congressional dysfunction but a symptom of it. In recent decades, the
House has transformed from a member-driven body into one where a small circle
of powerful leaders, in both parties, increasingly make the biggest decisions.
Rank-and-file members, Chafetz said, are increasingly seen as
little more than a vote.
“If they see themselves as a vote, well, OK—then why do they
need to do any of the other stuff?” he said. “If they can vote from home, why
not?”
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