Pelosi extends remote voting for House members

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) extended remote voting for House members on Tuesday, allowing lawmakers to vote by proxy until the end of September.

In a letter to colleagues, Pelosi said House members will be permitted to vote by proxy through Sept. 26 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In light of the attached notification by the Sergeant-at-Arms, in consultation with the Office of Attending Physician, that a public health emergency is in effect due to a novel coronavirus, I am hereby extending the “covered period” designated on January 4, 2021, pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, until September 26, 2022,” Pelosi wrote in the letter.

The House was slated to end remote voting on Aug. 12 had Pelosi not extended it.

House Democrats first instituted proxy voting in May 2020 as a way to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pelosi has since extended the covered period for remote voting a number of times, citing “the public health emergency due to the novel coronavirus.”

Proxy voting can only be authorized 45 days at a time.

Lawmakers have used the opportunity to vote by proxy over the past two-plus years.

The extension comes even as the Capitol has nixed other coronavirus-related measures. The building no longer requires masks to be worn, and tours have resumed.

A number of lawmakers, however, have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has vowed on a number of occasions to do away with proxy voting if Republicans take control of the House in the November midterm elections.