The Republican Party leads the House of Representatives by a margin of 222 to 212.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to end proxy voting is more than simply a symbolic gesture to ensure that all members of the House of Representatives are present in Washington, D.C., to serve their people, especially given the close margin of victory enjoyed by the Republican Party.
In the 118th Congress, the Republicans are starting with 222 seats and the Democrats with 212. Consequently, attendance is critical, as initiatives necessitating full Republican support may be stalled if even a small number of Republicans were absent. Republicans may try to pass an unlawful bill if there aren’t enough Democrats there to block it.
After a week of intense voting, the House of Representatives finally settled on a new speaker. To prevent McCarthy from squeaking by with a simple majority of votes, Democratic party officials rallied their supporters before the polls opened.
“Members shall remain on the Floor until the Election for Speaker of the House is ended and until advised differently by the Whip’s office,” read the notice. Members are expected to inform the Whip’s office of any upcoming absences as soon as possible.
McCarthy was confident he had won the gavel in the last vote, but a tally error cost the Republicans the House. Anarchy reigned as McCarthy desperately tried to rally any remaining Republican holdouts to the cause of passing a resolution.
Ultimately, six Republican holdouts voted “present,” therefore reducing the number of valid votes by two and giving McCarthy a majority with just 216.
With the GOP’s narrow majority and the new rule requiring lawmakers’ actual presence in the chamber to cast their votes, these are the kinds of decisions that House leaders may face. The Democrats haven’t had to deal with this kind of bureaucratic hassle since early 2020 when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed members to vote remotely.
As lawmakers return to Washington next week, there have been hints from both parties that they are ready to get back to work. Conservatives said they would be hurt by the new proposal, but Republicans said they would benefit.
According to a senior Republican employee who spoke to Fox News Digital, “it’ll be a significant change for House Democrats to now have to show up for work both for votes and committee hearings and markups.” There will be no more “voting from a boat” or “passing your vote off” to another politician so that you can attend a space launch while the committee is marking up the bill.
This began in May of 2020 when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi allowed for the first time for proxies to cast votes. Dozens more Democrats cast absentee ballots, and some current and former Florida Democrats claimed on election day that they were attending a SpaceX launch.
However, Massachusetts Democrat and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark stated that the Democrats’ 15 out of 15 attendance records for votes for House speaker, in which they voted for New York’s Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, prove that the Democrats are prepared to take on the role of leadership.
Clark told Fox News Digital that the House Democrats have already proven themselves to be “together, organized, and eager to get to work” after only two weeks in the 118th Congress.