WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) today slammed the more than 100 members of Congress who voted by proxy to say that they were “present” during last night’s quorum vote.
In a video, Gallagher said, “By definition, if you are voting by proxy, you are not present. This may be the height of our proxy voting absurdity…Just let this sink in: 101 members of the House voted present by proxy. If this does not illustrate how stupid and damaging proxy voting is, to this institution, I don’t know what else will.”
Watch Gallagher’s full video here or read the transcript below:
“Last night, Congress may have reached a new low. You see, last night we had what’s called a quorum vote. The quorum vote is where you vote on whether you are present or not present. It is to determine which members of Congress are actually here for the purpose of establishing a quorum.
“So we had this vote this quorum vote last night, and we had 101 members of Congress vote present by proxy. In other words, they had someone else vote present for them because they were not present.
“By definition, if you are voting by proxy, you are not present. This may be the height of our proxy voting absurdity. 101 members voting that they were present, while admitting against interest because they were proxy voting that they were indeed not present. And also lying in the process, saying they were not present. And remember, they also signed their name to a piece of paper saying they’re not present because of the ongoing Coronavirus emergency. We all know that’s not why they weren’t present.
“In fact, we have a handful of members that are traveling with President Biden to Georgia today. I guarantee you, some of them are going to vote proxy and say they can’t be here because of the Coronavirus pandemic, when in fact they can’t be here because they’re taking a political trip with President Biden to Georgia.
“So just let this sink in. 101 members of the House voted present by proxy. If this does not illustrate how stupid and damaging proxy voting is to this institution, I don’t know what else will.
“And I guarantee you that when we take back the House, the first thing we’ll do is get rid of this proxy voting scheme. Or at least that is the first thing we should do, because this is getting out of hand. Don’t let your member of Congress proxy vote.”
