Were opening up churches. Were eveniopening up hair salo. Today well send astronauts back into space. He only place that hasnt been opening is here at the capitol house. The we have something thats essential that congress does its work. Oday for more than 231 years never have within seen a proxy vote on the floor of the house. Challenge is the constitution only to protect and speaker. It violates the constitution. By a dir election of duty its dare election of duty by its members. 1793, the yellow fever of the civil war, the burning of of capitol during the war 1812, the spanish flu of 1918, and even 9 11. Fromess has never flinched its constitutional duty to phold and assemble inside this body. But today is different. As of right now, this morning, democrats have written to the house clerk to have their vote member. Er the last i checked, one member n this body on the democratic side will vote for five different states just in this proxy scheme. If i look to california half of , more than them, last i checked, 27 to vote by led proxy. In means 19 Million People california will not have a voice, will be lent to somebody else. Country, looking at more than 71, there will be 48 constituents, these are the constituents that members of congress believe they their voice, have passed it to the side. When you look at the heroes act, was only 12 democrats 71. Did not show and now inside what pelosi wanted to put forward on a proxy, she said, only if you physically cannot capitol to do your work. The democrats continue to fail leadership. The constitution is very clear about this. He founders believed we should assemble. Are successful in allowing a proxy vote to make them own rules, what stops from making a rule that only certain people can vote or have a members cannot vote . Ote, a half nothing. Yes, the house can make the rules but they cannot make Something Different than the says. Tution it is very clear in the alltitution, from article 1 through the house is supposed to assemble. Unconstitutional what the democrats are doing. It will be quite interesting bring up thef they fisa bill and try to move a rule, there will be more republicans on the floor voting person than there are democrats. Proposed he democrats to bring up cannot become law. Its unconstitutional. That is why i stand with the members behind me and across this country in upholding the constitution. Xactly what we swore we would do. The founders believe we should assemble and we should work, done from every challenge this country has had. Up, other states open pelosi continues to try to shrink. T is essential Congress Continues to meet and thats why well move forward with the for the o uphold constituents across this country. Whiplet me turn it over to scalise. Mr. Scalise thank you, kevin. You ts good to see all of here at the capitol. Its really important that we at the here to work capitol, to do our job, as were calling on americans all across country to safely reopen. Were helping states safely reopen. Getting dents been additional protocols issued by states can do how this safely. You can see so many states, over states have already reopened, entering into phase one and done it in a really smart way. Ought to be sharing the best practices. Not only among states but how businesses are opening, how restaurants are doing this. Reopening. Stores are weve seen the devastation that this has caused to our economy and the importance of getting back up and running. Weve also seen the health having nces of not people be able to get out and go back to their doctor. That are up. In my own home parish, weve een over 40 increase in noncovid related deaths from this year compared to last year, sixweek period, because people arent going out and seeing if they have chest theyre not going to the doctor and theyre dying in their houses of heart attacks. Being immunized and were seeing reports now, medical studies that show we ould have a wide outbreak of things like measles that could kill a lot of children that otherwise would have been able shots. Those so there is a cost and a consequence. Ts why we need to safely reopen. Its why so many states have shown they can do it. But congress ought to be leading and showing how to safely reopen. We shouldnt be the last to do our nd show up and job. We should be the first. And weve been able to have votes on the house floor safely. Ully and in the last few weeks, we had he with over 380 members here, present and voting before Speaker Pelosi put in this voting tutional proxy scheme. And so when you think about this, the idea that today on the house floor, someone could be sitting in the state of registered as be voting present on the house floor because someone else the present button for them. There was a great article by proxyvoting present is a political oxymoron. This is not constitutional. The constitution makes it clear we have to have a majority of quorum to sent for a do business. And then you look at the fisa just formally announced a whip against it because, number one, its not going to become law. Still so , there are many questions that need to be answered about real eye buices real abuses that happen in the fisa system. I have been a strong supporter of the fisa court and its to properly help maintain the National Security of our country. Was abused. Process and those people who abused it havent yet been held accountable. Of the facts havent come out on what we know happened with the fisa court, and that to happen to reinstitute the credibility of that for our program National Security. So i would urge the democrats to pull that bill because even if to pass and, again, think about this proxy voting constitutionally challenged if this vote were to pass, it would only vote proxy d only pass with votes. Meaning the constitutionality of be questionedould for a program thats already got its own taint on it. Work together to help reopen the country, to show america that congress is here for the American People. And its time for that to happen. To start losi needs insisting that all of her members show up to work here at it safely, doing and working to do things like Holding China accountable. Wills it that nancy pelosi not spend time on the house floor Holding China accountable in this . Role thats something they are going to have to answer for but were oing to keep pushing for those kind of reforms. With that i yield to our conference chair, liz cheney. Thank you, steve. Thank you very much. You know, were in the midst of National Public health and economic crisis, and as an ers of congress, we have obligation to ensure that congress can operate. There are different views p per expectives up perspectives up here in terms of remote voting. We tried very hard to work in a fashion. N weve all tried to reach across the aisle and work with our counterparts on the democratic to help to come up with ways that congress can operate. O help them come up with ways we can fulfill the constituti constitutional requireme be present we requirement we be present. Require physical present. I think remote operations are possible. But thats not the path gone down. Ave what the democrats have done, instead of working with us, is se this crisis to try to gain partisan benefits. What the democrats have done report, youheir own know, a number of us, including Ranking Member of the rules the ttee, mr. Cole, and leader and whip, a number of us have worked closely with the democrats to try to say, listen, with ways, as we did after 9 11, that we can operate in the middle of a pandemic. Lets also look for ways to protect us in the future. E know there will be future crises and we know they got to come up with ways we can operate in the future. Here may be circumstances when we cannot assemble at the capitol. And we may need to look at voting remotely. After the speaker of the house weeks, for weeks and refuse to even address the issue, she then commissioned a report. With some came up interesting suggestions. There were some good suggestions report. The report also noted that proxy voting was likely unconstitutional. Democrats own report. So instead of going down the of saying how can we do this together, the democrats adopted a completely partisan in me and they have done it a way that absolutely infringes on the rights of the minority nd infringes on the constitution. And so we today, its a sad day hat we have got to be to the position where were bringing suit against the spieshg, were speaker, against the were bringing suit against the democrats in order for them this proxy vote through. Its important to mention that which the first items on they are planning to use this proxy vote is an item that deals directly with the national nation. Of this now, im hopeful the leader and the whip have asked that they pull that fisa vote. Is a crucially important set of authorities and its a et of authorities that was abused. We have to make sure we deal with the abuse and address the push but we should not through a bill which in my view would fundamentally weaken our the nation safe because of the amendments that have been added to that bill and e shouldnt do that with proxy vote. Imagine that. You got millions of americans across this country who will not represented because their members have decided to use a proxy and were going to pass a going to s fundamentally harm the security of the nation if the democrats continue down that path. Of thats not an abuse their Constitutional Authority and power, i cant imagine what is. The democrats to pull urge them and i also to rescind this rule that allows proxy voting. We can work s that together, as i said, many of us have been public about wanting to do that. A time for partisanship. Its not a time to try to take artisan advantage of the crisis. With that id like to turn things over to my colleague, mr. Roy. Want to thank the leader and the whip for their efforts to stand up for the constitution. Former prosecutor, attorney general in texas, i worked on cases in the past and its important we stand up for the constitution but its also personal. Survivor of polio. Contracted the virus in 1949 and till deals with those effects today. I am a cancer survivor. We have one plaintiff on our side who is battling cancer now and didnt get to vote on this proxy measure but believes its important for us o stand up and difend the constitution. And i think thats really at stake right here. And so if you think about the what ng fathers and occurred, the leader referenced hat happened with respect to philadelphia and yellow fever. There were 5,000 deaths out of 50,000 People Living in 1793. Elphia in 10 of the population. That would be the equivalent so people 0,000 or losing their lives. And thats where the congress is meet. Ed to you go go look at a letter from madison , 1793, james wrote to president washington, he outlines the concerns about how congress should meet. Should meet. Walks through the consternation of following the constitution to that congress does its job. I would encourage you to look at that letter. The founders struggled with issues. Thats why its important we stand up today. E cannot delegate away that which our constituents have delegated to us, under the constitution. E cannot hand that to another member. Much less hand it to 10 other members. Thats an extraordinary change our constitutional system of government. And i would just point out, year sunday, i walked onto the floor of the house and i objected to 19 1 2 billion ollars passing by unanimous consent. Why . You guys wrote stories that it was about trying to object to funding. But the truth is, it was about process. It was about making sure our rights are protected so we can a vote, a roll call vote. Fast forward to march of this last year, whatted . What happened . We had a member of this body who demanded we have a quorum and have amanded we actually roll call vote. The constitution provides that you have to have a fifth of the the body didnt have a fifth that agreed so we didnt have a roll call vote. Constitution working. Thats what were up here trying protect, to make sure we protect our ability to represent our constituents of undermining the structure of the government. I want to thank chuck cooper who to take on this case with the excellence hes known for. Most brilliant legal minds in the country. Ill pass it off to mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson hey, thank yall for being here. Got to before i congress i litigated constitutional law cases in federal courts around the country. I had some difficult cases on occasion. This is a really easy one. Brought along a little visual aid here for my democrat colleagues. I want them to take a look at he manual that each of us gets each congress. It has our name on the front here. And it has all the rules and all procedural going ones in the ouse and published but its proceeded by the United States constitution. Dont carry them it around in their lapel pocket. I would refer them to the actual language of the constitution. Its been said this lawsuit and this effort is about politics. About the constitution itself. Let me read you three excerpts. You just have to look at article , the first article of the constitution, and look at section 4. It says Congress Shall assemble year and nce in every such meeting shall be on the first monday in december. Ow, we know that one that provision was superseded by the 20th amendment in 1933. But they echoed and adopted that same language. You flip over to article 1, section 5, says a majority of constitute a ll quorum to do business. In a smaller a smaller number adjourn from day to day and be authorized to compel the absent members under such penalties each house may provide. The next section 6. Senators and representatives be privilege in arrest in attendance of the session in representative houses. This is in the 1780s when the constitution was drafted and rat feud. 1 ratified. 100 years later the supreme cited, 1892, the Supreme Court said the constitution requires, quote, the presence of majority. And when that majority is resent the power of the house arise. This is simple for folks back home. We have greatest, most powerful, history nation in the of the world. We celebrate that on memorial ay, as we all did this last weekend. Those who have given their lives to preserve that, to preserve this constitution. But only 243 years into it, we have to remember we are a young country. A grand experiment in the ideas of liberties and selfgovernance. Our constitution that we have a government of, by, for the on particular foundations and one of those is important. The members that are elected, representatives who are elected to represent all the people throughout the country physically gether and arm wrestle over public policy. You have very different ideas, different principles, philosophies thats represented. Thats kind of the point. But the idea is we would all get Work Together to find consensus to move the ball forward for the most people. The premise of our constitution. Thats the premise of our republic. You cant have a republic any other way. We dont have caning who is a sovereign. The people you cant have a who is a sovereign. Thats why meeting together and physicalg and having a presence is all about. You cant do that by video. You certainly cant do it by proxy. About. s what this is i tell you, i represent myself in this lawsuit, all of us are signed on as plaintiffs. Have constituents. I talked to my constituent who signed on as a plaintiff last lorene spratt, shes deeply upset about this. Shes a patriot. In every election. She is afraid that our votes are watereddown and our is being violated and she has the right to be heard. I think it goes to the Supreme Court very quickly and the Pretty Simple in the to our t we defer colleague. He future majority leader, kevin mccarthy. Mr. Mccarthy open it up to questions. Have reaction u to leader hoyers remarks that the g. O. P. Senate is already basically proxy voting with unanimous consent, get your reaction to that . No. Mccarthy anybody can object in here. When you finding is have 75 democrats put a vote to somebody else, their arent being heard. They dont know whats coming up. They are not participating in it. Unconstitutional. Yes, sir. Reporter whats the practical effect of the lawsuit . Ou are not going to stop the proxy vote happening today. What do you a mccarthy its playing baseball game in a protest. At the end of the game well right. Figure out whos whatever the democrats move forward, probably will never law. E uphold to become its a question whether the senate will take it up, if you listen to leader mcconnell. He questions even the constitutionality of what were going forward. Example. Ve you one what if we have a bill come forward and in the process, what Speaker Pelosi puts in this proxy, that members have to sign over and 20 people can have all power, because they can all hold 10 proxies and they have to pretell you how theyre going to vote, what if an amendment is changed, what if a motion to recommit comes up . Can that person that already gave a letter that is supposed the desk able to vote for the other . In this country, we believe vote. Dont people vote. Right . So its equal every 10 years in constituents lone their power to that individual or two years to hold she or he accountable. Well, that person just lent it to somebody else. California eople in believe they have a member of congress that theyre going to be able to uphold. They and accountable what they did. No. They gave that vote to somebody else. From another state, somebody from another district. Against the arly process and the constitution do. Says were able to yes. Reporter followup on that and ask another question. Is it your view that anything that passed under proxy would be unconstitutional . Mr. Mccarthy yes. Reporter as a followup, can clarify the what you said about fisa. S it your belief something should not pass unless its unspecified investigations is youre satisfied the 2016 related investigations are done to mr. Mccarthy i think there is a things of why fisa should take a pause. Just, for instance, im law. Ested in making im interested in making sure the fisa court has reform and itself. Sustain that its looking at foreigners, not americans. Today, moving forward it wont be signed into law. The president has gets. Attorney the president has questions. The attorney general has questions. The senators themselves disagree with it. Of times, i nts take a deep breath. Lets go back, Work Together. When the first bill in the house passed, republicans and democrats worked together. Had a majority on both sides. Forward. O move it we should do that same thing now. If the democrats bring this bill playing re just politics and this is not something to play politics with and we havent done it all the through. I called leader steny hoyer last thought him i just wanted to tell him republicans are, because we worked very closely on this bill i think we should take a deep breath, lets work hrough the differences, lets work with the administration, lets work with other house members and the senate and make sure we make law. Since the time we passed the law in the house, there has been more information coming forward used he fisa court being in processes it shouldnt have been on americans as well. E should get that information as well if we think we are going to reform this. Yes, maam. Reporter just a quick change of gears in a moment. One of your last press conferences you touted california 25 as an indication republicans are going to be doing in the upcoming house races. But still historically speaking, the party thats in the minority, that just lost the more than likely not going to take back the house. How can you account for that . Mr. Mccarthy ok, let me account for that. If you want to take a fact that back, we s lost the won it back in four years when we lost majority. I look to, what has the majority it . With majorities arent given. Majorities are earned. First of all, lets see what done. E they wasted their time. They promised the American Public they would be different. Hey said they would act different. Well, they spent a year and a investigating something even their own Intelligent Committee knew was a lie. On hey spent all their time impeachment. Political. Now, they change the rules, the constitution just to empower a speaker. Which i dont think the American Public wants. Taken the voice away from their constituents and has given it to somebody else. Those reasons is why they should not be bivgiven the again, because they wasted it and they lied to the American Public. Now, what are the early indications . Go with nt to historical facts, they give you many historical facts. You a special election each time prior was an early indication. Special election in hawaii. People didnt think we had a chance to win. Won. Lican 63 democrats lost majority. Same thing happened in 2018. A republican seat in went to a democrat, connor lamb. O and behold, they won the majority. Yeah, i think 25 is an indicator of the election coming forward. To take that ant one, lets look at North Carolina nine. Ats look at the election was bigger win for republicans than it was just a few short months prior. An early nk thats indication. Also in california 25, they changed the election law. Nine ust won that seat by points less than a year and a half ago and they changed it mailin was only a ballot but they didnt hold it there. Friday before the election, they an inperson balanlot. Throughout the district, no . Their own candidate said sherp concerned democrats they were concerned out. Rats werent turning more indication that are more democrats than republicans. Its the only seat inside republican will hold that Hillary Clinton carried by a majority. Go by facts, to yes. Its an early indication, but november. Are in and i think majorities are won and are not given. m not sure why the American People will give the democrats another majority if they lied to and and didnt follow out carry what they promised and what did they even achieve. Name me one problem they have theyve become a majority . You dont have to take that from a republican. From the most popular freshman in the democratic partys former chief of staff. Exact same thing about his own party and his own leadership. Sir. Last question. Reporter do you agree with tte wall street journal editorial which they basically said the president s his family and ard this Joe Scarborough are sort of beneath the office, beneath the dignity . Mr. Mccarthy i havent read that editorial. I wasnt here with Joe Scarborough. Subject now about the itself. Well. T know the subject whoever is on the phone for alling the temperature reporter you brought up the fact you may be open to alternatives that would still be voting but wouldnt be proxy, im wondering if somebody elaborate what those alternatives might be . Second one was just more you are very of active on twitter. The fact that twitter decided to to two of the um president s tweets, sort of oing a fact check, just your reaction . Mr. Mccarthy it would be concerned of who is doing the fact check. It would be pretty possible to find somebody who is nonpartisan. Run a company like twitter, you probably first look at what that individual would put out on twitter themselves. Somebody who would think republicans are racists, label those who are in Republican Party equal to people who is in the nazi party, are in ut states that the United States in a manner simply ot appropriate because a republican carried it. Im not quite sure thats the theon i would have of being individual in charge of twitter determining whether the facts are correct or not. Think he already is biased in that opinion. I think twitter should actually person. Hat liz, do you want to address the question . You. Heney thank listen, i think we all, as i mentioned, we all looked at different ways that we could operate. Fact, there could be circumstances you could imagine a mass casualty attack, of a n imagine any sort National Security crisis where it might not be possible for the rs to assemble here in chamber, and so i think looking at what presence means is a question. I would note, however, this lawsuit does not get to that issue. Get to thet does not issue whether remote voting is constitutional. This issue in the lawsuit is proxy voting. That we are making is, you know, we all have an in rest in joining together a bipartisan fashion to make sure that the peoples house can peoples nd that the voice can be heard. Unfortunately in this case, the democrats simply ram through a themselves they said in their own report was questionable constitutionally. They rammed it through on a partisan basis in a way that voice ely takes away the of many of the constituents, the people who are not represented. With respect to the issue of the constitutionality ere oxy voting, wit absolutely unified on that. Think these require deep research, study, attention to what the constitution says to intended. Ramers also a recognition of the most important thing for this body to be able to operate. We create a situation where the speaker of the house for weeks refuseks and to deal with remote voting, refuse to brings us together to perate, you create a situation where the body doesnt operate. I cant imagine anybody who has american st of the people at the forefront of their mind is going to think in a National Crisis we ought to have president of the United States operating. The peoples house have got to e here and we got to be working. There is no question mr. Mccarthy thank you, all, very much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Isit ncicap. Org] and the u. S. House returns at noon eastern today. Members are scheduled to consider an extension of some foreign s of the Intelligence Surveillance act known as fisa. Those provisions expire at the end of this month without action. Ional todays measure makes some changes to the veils Program Program and llance continues it until december 1 of 2023. Also in the house today, anctions against chinese official who take part in abuses against chinese ethnic inorities, including muslim uighurs. And today marks the first time the house is to use floor voting by proxy. Can designate someone else to vote for them. Republicans have filed suit in stop that from happening. Well see if it goes forward as planned. Way, is vote, by the expected at around 1 00 eastern. You can watch it live right here on cspan. Semper fi. Today, watch live coverage of xs aunch of space commercial crew test flight. Marking the first launch of american soil and spacecraft since 2011. Coverage of the dragon launch begins at 12 15 p. M. On cspan2 with liftoff astronauts as launch to the international station. Nd an interview with the nasa administrator. On cspan2, all day live overage of the space x crew dragon as it docks with the International Space station. Then the opening of the hatch space vehicles. And the event between the space crew dragon and the i. S. S. Crew. Watch live on cspan2, online at the n. Org, or listen on free cspan radio app. Cspans daily unfiltered coverage of the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic with the white house, congress, and governors from across the country. In the conversation on our live callin program, if you ton journal and missed any of our live coverage watch anytime on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus
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