After an attempt to change the House rules to allow Members to vote on legislation while not physically present, Eagle Forum is pleased that the issue has been resolved without reinstating proxy voting. Instead, the House adopted a resolution to clarify that Members who miss votes can use “vote pairing” to announce how they would have voted had they been present.
“We are grateful to Speaker Johnson for his steadfast defense of the Constitution and to Representative Luna for her compromise resolution. By bringing back vote pairing, Members will be able to officially declare their position on missed votes, providing constituents with valuable information,” said Kris Ullman, President of Eagle Forum.
“Eagle Forum cares deeply for mothers and their babies, however, allowing Representatives or their spouses to vote from places other than the designated House chamber would have opened Pandora’s box of problematic behavior. The U.S. Constitution requires Members to be present to be counted for a quorum. Nancy Pelosi’s pandemic-era proxy voting was unconstitutional and hurt the integrity of the voting process and we are delighted it will not be returning,” Ullman continued.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the practice of “pairing” involves a Member who is absent during a vote on the House floor arranging with a Member on the opposite side of a specific question (who may be present or absent) to announce they are forming a “pair,” allowing the absent Members to have recorded how they would have voted had they been present. Neither vote is counted in the vote tally for passage of the measure.
Eagle Forum organized a coalition letter with over a dozen prominent conservative women opposing proxy voting. We also sent a letter to Republican House Members noting that a vote in favor of proxy voting would count against their overall rating on our congressional scorecard.
“Eagle Forum has always stood on Constitutional principle, and we are grateful for Speaker Mike Johnson’s commitment to do the same,” Ullman continued. “We thank all those involved for resolving this issue in a satisfactory manner.”
