Mike Gallagher

I tend to fall down in the more traditional category there.

I don't particularly like proxy voting. I am all for getting away with it.

I think if you read the text of the Constitution, words like 'meeting,' 'assemble,' 'attendance,' 'present,' 'absent,' 'recess,' 'sitting,' 'seat,' it clearly requires a Member of Congress to be actually present.

We all take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

the ultimate disenfranchisement of voters? The lack of any power of any one Member of Congress.

Representative Bost talked about people voting in their swim trunks on the lake.

How can you maintain the integrity of the institution if you are institutionalizing lies?

That is a very big statement. That is a debatable statement, one we ought to be debating.

your Members squabbled for months on end over this process.

I think it is just about the truth. Because when you proxy vote...you have to sign a piece of paper that says, I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency.

Congress is not, nor has it ever been, a virtual body, and we cannot simply turn off our responsibilities to our constituents.

nobody on my side was for Build Back Better.

There is no question it is obvious and inarguable, to the point of being self-evident now, that people are abusing proxy voting.

The disrespect in our committee is not limited to interaction between Members either. We have had Members of our Democratic majority make fun of witnesses for their attire, lie in bed, and order and eat their lunch while witnesses are…

A virtual format also deprives Members of full participation in committee hearings.

the institution is broken.

Unfortunately, we seem to have fewer and fewer of these opportunities today, and proxy voting only exacerbates the situation.

I don't think it is constitutional for us to cast these votes.

My constituents wake up every morning and go to work on the farm to feed our families, in the classroom to teach our children, into the police station to serve and protect our communities, or into the factory to make the things we use in…

That is disenfranchising and that it is causing distrust in the institution.

We have an obligation to defend the Constitution.

I think it is bad, and I think it ultimately destroys--and you just deal with these problems when they occur.

They are abusing proxy voting so they can have a longer weekend, right? Because it is an inconvenience to come to D.C.

This has almost assuredly been at least a contributing factor to the rise of raw partisanship we see in the Congress today, where toxicity amongst political ideas or ideologies has become the norm.

Proxy voting has been a disaster that has torn this institution apart, and I will continue to believe that because I have witnessed it, and we have all witnessed it.