Chairman McGovern: McConnell is Flat-Out Wrong on the House’s Remote Voting Procedure
WASHINGTON, DC — Rules Committee Chairman James P. McGovern (D-MA) today issued the following statement in response to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell disputing the constitutionality of the House's remote voting rule and suggesting that the Senate may not accept bills passed under this procedure:
“Leader McConnell’s comments are flat-out wrong.
“The Constitution and more than 100 years of legal precedent, including Supreme Court cases, make this crystal clear. Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley School of Law, has concluded, the ‘Constitution bestows on each House of Congress broad discretion to determine the rules for its own proceedings…This authority is expansive and would include the ability to adopt a rule to permit proxy voting.’ Deborah Pearlstein, constitutional law professor at Cardozo School of Law, has said the ‘Constitution…contains no specific requirement of physical presence for Members to vote.’
“The House has the authority to determine its own rules. Leader McConnell should get his own house in order instead of worrying about the procedure used on the other side of the Capitol. It’s a disgrace that he is telling struggling Americans to hurry up and wait as the Senate refuses to take up additional coronavirus relief in the middle of a global health and economic emergency.”
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