Republicans vote by proxy -- after slamming the idea a year ago
Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., had a message for Democrats last summer about their proxy voting system set up during the pandemic: it was an "unconstitutional scheme."
"If you use Nancy Pelosi's proxy to skip work, you shouldn't get paid. It's as simple as that," he said in a June 30 Facebook video introducing his new bill withholding member pay for proxy voting.
On Friday, as the House prepared to vote on the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package on Capitol Hill, Budd was 850 miles away, addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., to vote as his proxy, "due to the ongoing public health emergency."
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Budd wasn't alone: A handful of House Republicans previously critical of the proxy vote system submitted letters to have colleagues vote for them, while they were scheduled to appear at CPAC.
Freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., tweeted last summer that leaders "show up no matter how uncertain the times are," and that Democrats were "cowards for hiding" and proxy voting.
He was also in Orlando on Friday, telling conservatives activists, "If we sit on the sidelines, we will not have a country to inherit."
"If we do not get involved and say that it is our duty to make sure that our country is responsible, that our country doesn't take away our liberties, then my friends, we will lose this nation," Cawthorn said.
Others Republicans scheduled to appear at CPAC on Friday who also planned to vote by proxy included Reps. Greg Steube of Florida, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, and Matt Gaetz of Florida, who was one of the first Republicans to support proxy voting.
Curtis Kalin, a spokesman for Budd, said the congressman still opposes proxy voting, and will donate his salary for the days he used the system to a restaurant relief fund, given his bill last year, "The No Pay for Proxy Voting Act."
The Republicans who attended CPAC aren't alone in their questionable use of the proxy voting system -- established by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., last year to cut down member travel to Washington during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., was caught voting during a Transportation Committee hearing from a boat during a family trip to Utah. Stanton later apologized and said he "messed up." And several House Democrats voted by proxy last May in order to attend a SpaceX rocket launch in Florida.-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel