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| Photo: Rod Lamkey/Zuma Press |
Time to end the ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ Congress
The Covid-19 pandemic spawned many “emergency” measures that Democrats want to make permanent. One of the most shameless is proxy voting in the House, which lets quarantined or vulnerable lawmakers log ayes and nays remotely. By now this has become an excuse for Members of the House to skip town for any reason.
To designate a proxy, lawmakers file a letter with the House clerk that typically includes this unambiguous line: “I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency.” It sounds almost like a doctor’s note for illness.
Yet it’s become more like the start of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” when Bueller skips school by faking clammy hands. The number of proxy votes is about 50% higher on “fly-out days” near the end of the week, according to Roll Call. Occasionally it makes news that some Member of the House voted by proxy, ostensibly due to Covid, while his election campaign was tweeting pictures of him kissing babies. What’s harder to know is who votes remotely because D.C. is hot in the summer and it’s such a long flight.
When the final version of the Inflation Reduction Act passed the House in August, Rep. Cindy Axne, an Iowa Democrat, voted remotely. Reporters spotted Ms. Axne around the same time in her son’s Instagram photo of their family vacation in France. She told an Iowa TV station that the House wasn’t supposed to be in session that week: “I had a trip planned for eight months, and paid for.” OK, but then don’t sign a proxy letter you know is false. --->READ MORE HERE
House Republicans are demanding copies of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s early pandemic reports to states on COVID-19 nursing home deaths — signaling a likely path to revive investigations into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other Democratic leaders if the GOP retakes the House in next week’s midterm elections.
The existence of the CDC reports to state officials was described in a briefing last year for members of the House Ways and Means Committee and date from May 2020, the approximate end date of New York requiring nursing homes to take COVID-19 patients.
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the retiring ranking member of the committee, renewed a request for the records in a Thursday letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. It was co-signed by committee members Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.).
The lawmakers said the records could provide insight into the cover-up of death data by Cuomo and his administration.
“During [a] March 11, 2021, briefing, we learned that the [CDC] used the National Health Safety Network (NHSN) to gather COVID-19 related nursing home data directly from nursing homes across the country,” Brady writes. “As part of that data collection effort, which began in May 2020, the CDC provided monthly reports to state governments summarizing the data reported directly by nursing homes.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
New York judge rules voting by mail due to COVID fears is unconstitutional
Why Are Feds Still Funding EcoHealth Alliance When Its COVID-19 Role Remains Unresolved?
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
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