Speaker pelosi, says the house is still moving forward on a fisa vote despite republican requests to pull the bill. Quoting pelosi, well act upon it today one way or another. Well have live coverage when they do here on cspan. Live coverage also a very historic day when they do vote heyll vote by. Expressed my Republican Leadership this morning in their morning News Conference outside the u. S. Capitol. Well show that to you again well have the house live when they gavel back in here on span. Mr. Mccarthy we thank you for coming. Across this country we are seeing communities working towards opening up safely. In california, we are opening up churches, we are opening hair salons, even today in america we are going to send astronauts back into space. The only place that hasnt been opening is here on the capitol inside the house. We know we have a responsibility that is essential that congress does its work. Today for more than 231 years never have we seen a proxy vote on the floor of the house. This challenges the constitution only to protect and empower a speaker. It violates the constitution, a dereliction of duty by its members. We look at the history of america through yellow fever of 1793, the civil war, the burning of this capitol during the war of 1812, the spanish flu of 1918. And even 9 11. Congress has never flinched from its constitutional duty to uphold and assemble inside this body. But today is different. As of right now this morning 71 democrats have written to the house clerk to have their vote by another member. The last i checked one member in this body on the democratic side will vote for five different states. Just in 24 scheme, if i look to the democrats who are than half of them, 27 democrats, last i checked, filed to vote by proxy. That means 19 Million People in california will not have a voice, will be lent to somebody else. Across the country looking at more than 71, that would be 48 Million People, constituents. These are the constituents that members of congress believe that they would uphold their voice have passed the toed side. When you look at the heroes act, it was only 12 democrats that did that show. Now 71. Inside what pelosi wanted to put forward on a proxy she said, only if you physically cannot come to the capitol to do your work. The democrats continue to fail in their leadership. The constitution is very clear about this. The founders believed we should assemble. If the democrats are successful in allowing a proxy vote to make their own rules, what stops them from making a rule that only certain people can vote or certain members cannot have a full vote, a half vote . Nothing. Yes, the house can make the rules but they could in the make Something Different than the constitution says. It is very clear in the constitution from article 1, all through, that the house is upposed to assemble. It will be interesting today even even if they bring the fisa bill and move rule, there will be more republicans on the floor voting in person than there are democrats. Whatever the democrats propose to bring up cannot become law. Because it is unconstitutional. This is why i stand with the members behind me and constituents across this country in upholding the constitution. , actly exactly what we said we should do. The founders believed we should assemble and work just as we have done through every challenge this country had. While other states open up, pelosi continues to try it is essential that Congress Continues to meet and thats why well move forward with the lawsuit. To uphold for the constituents across this country. Turn it over to whip scalise. Scalise the president has been getting different protocols to shot c. D. C. You can see over 36 states have already reopened entering into phase one and done it in a smartway. This has caused to our economy and the importance of getting that back up and running. Weve also seen the Health Consequences of not having people be able to get out and go back to their doctor. Deaths that are up. In my own home parish, weve seen over 40 increase in noncovid related deaths from this year compared to last year, taking a sixweek period, because people arent going out and seeing if they have chest pains, theyre not going to the doctor and theyre dying in their houses of heart attacks. Children arent being immunized and were seeing reports now, medical studies that show we could have a wide outbreak of things like measles that could kill a lot of children that otherwise would have been able to get those shots. So there is a cost and a consequence. Its why we need to safely reopen. Its why so many states have shown they can do it. But congress ought to be leading the country and showing how to safely reopen. We shouldnt be the last to reopen and show up and do our job. We should be the first. And weve been able to have votes on the house floor successfully and safely. In the last few weeks, we had votes with over 380 members here, present and voting before Speaker Pelosi put in this unconstitutional proxy voting scheme. And so when you think about this, the idea that today on the house floor, someone could be sitting in the state of california and be registered as voting present on the house floor because someone else pushed the present button for them. There was a great article written, voting present by proxy is a political oxymoron. This is not constitutional. The constitution makes it clear we have to have a majority of members present for a quorum to do business. And then you look at the fisa bill, and we just formally announced a whip against it because, number one, its not going to become law. Number two, there are still so many questions that need to be answered about real abuses that happen in the fisa system. I have been a strong supporter of the fisa court and its ability to properly help maintain the National Security of our country. But the fisa process was abused. And those people who abused it havent yet been held accountable. All of the facts havent come out on what we know happened with the fisa court, and that needs to happen to reinstitute the credibility of that Important Program for our National Security. So i would urge the democrats to pull that bill because even if it were to pass and, again, think about this proxy voting which is constitutionally challenged if this vote were to pass, it would only vote it would only pass with proxy votes. Meaning the constitutionality of this program would be questioned for a program thats already got its own taint on it. So we need to Work Together to help reopen the country, to show america that congress is here working for the American People. And its time for that to happen. Speaker pelosi needs to start insisting that all of her members show up to work here at the capitol, doing it safely, and working to do things like Holding China accountable. Why is it that nancy pelosi will not spend time on the house floor Holding China accountable for their role in this . Thats something they are going to have to answer for but were going to keep pushing for those kind of reforms. With that i yield to our conference chair, liz cheney. Ms. Cheney thank you, steve. Thank you very much. You know, were in the midst of a Grave NationalPublic Health and economic crisis, and as members of congress, we have an obligation to ensure that congress can operate. Now, there are different views and perspectives up here in terms of remote voting. We tried very hard to work in a bipartisan fashion. Weve all tried to reach across the aisle and work with our counterparts on the democratic side to help to come up with ways that congress can operate. To help them come up with ways we can fulfill the constitution requirement that we e present. Now, in my own view, being present doesnt necessarily i think remote operations are possible. But thats not the path democrats have gone down. What the democrats have done, instead of working with us, is use this crisis to try to gain partisan benefits. What the democrats have done counter to their own report, you know, a number of us, including Ranking Member of the rules committee, mr. Cole, and the leader and whip, a number of us have worked closely with the democrats to try to say, listen, lets come up with ways, as we did after 9 11, that we can operate in the middle of a pandemic. And lets also look for ways to protect us in the future. We know there will be future crises and we know weve got to come up with ways we can operate in the future. There may be circumstances when we cannot assemble at the capitol. And we may need to look at things voting remotely. Instead of going down that path, despite the fact that we have tried to Work Together,after the speaker of the house delayed for weeks and weeks, refuse to even address the issue, she then commissioned a report. The report came up with some interesting suggestions. There were some good suggestions in the report. The report also noted that proxy voting was likely unconstitutional. The democrats own report. So instead of going down the path of saying how can we do this together, the democrats adopted a completely partisan scheme and they have done it in a way that absolutely infringes on the rights of the minority and infringes on the constitution. And so we today, its a sad day that we have got to be to the position where were bringing suit against the speaker, bringing suit against the democrats, in order to prevent them from pushing this proxy vote through. Its important to mention that one of the first items on which they are planning to use this proxy vote is an item that deals directly with the National Security of this nation. Now, im hopeful the leader and the whip have asked that they pull that fisa vote. Fisa is a crucially important set of authorities and its a set of authorities that was abused. We have to make sure we deal with the abuse and address the abuse but we should not push through a bill which in my view would fundamentally weaken our ability to keep the nation safe because of the amendments that have been added to that bill and we shouldnt do that with proxy vote. Imagine that. You got millions of americans across this country who will not be represented because their members have decided to use a proxy and were going to pass a bill thats going to fundamentally harm the security of the nation if the democrats continue down that path. Now, thats not an abuse of their Constitutional Authority and power, i cant imagine what is. So i urge the democrats to pull that bill, and i also urge them to rescind this rule that allows proxy voting. There are ways that we can Work Together, as i said, many of us have been public about wanting to do that. This is not a time for partisanship. Its not a time to try to take partisan advantage of the crisis. With that id like to turn things over to my colleague, mr. Roy. Mr. Roy i want to thank the leader and the whip for their efforts in bringing us together here to stand up for the constitution. As a former prosecutor, attorney general in texas, i worked on these cases in the past and its important we stand up for the constitution but its also personal. My dad is a survivor of polio. Contracted the virus in 1949 and still deals with those effects today. I am a cancer survivor. We have one plaintiff on our side who is battling cancer right now and didnt get to vote on this proxy measure but believes its important for us to stand up and defend the constitution. And i think thats really at stake right here. And so if you think about the Founding Fathers and what occurred, the leader referenced what happened with respect to philadelphia and yellow fever. There were 5,000 deaths out of 50,000 People Living in philadelphia in 1793. 10 of the population. That would be the equivalent today of 170,000 or so people losing their lives. And thats where the congress is supposed to meet. You go look at a letter from october 24 of 1793 that James Madison wrote to president washington, he outlines the concerns about how congress should meet. Where we should meet. Walks through the consternation of following the constitution to ensure that congress does its job. I would encourage you to look at that letter. The founders struggled with these issues. Thats why its important we stand up today. We cannot delegate away that which our constituents have delegated to us, under the constitution. We cannot hand that to another member. Much less hand it to 10 other members. Thats an extraordinary change in our constitutional system of government. And i would just point out, year ago this last sunday, i walked onto the floor of the house and i objected to 19. 5 billion passing by unanimous consent. Why . You guys wrote stories that it was about trying to object to the funding. But the truth is, it was about process. It was about making sure our rights are protected so we can have a vote, a roll call vote. Fast forward to march of this last year, what happened . We had a member of this body who demanded we have a quorum and then demanded we actually have a roll call vote. The constitution provides that you have to have a fifth of the body agree and the body didnt have a fifth that agreed so we didnt have a roll call vote. Thats the constitution working. Thats what were up here trying to defend and protect, to make sure we protect our ability to represent our constituents instead of undermining the structure of the government. I want to thank chuck cooper who is willing to take on this case with the excellence hes known for. Hes one of the most brilliant legal minds in the country. Ill look forward to it moving through the system. Ill pass it off to mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson hey, thank yall for being here. 20 years before i got to 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. I brought along a little visual aid here for my democrat colleagues. I want them to take a look at the manual that each of us gets each congress. It has our name on the front here. And it has all the rules and all the procedural goings on in the house and published, but its proceeded by the United States constitution. I know one of them dont carry 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. This is about the constitution itself. Let me read you three excerpts. You just have to look at article 1, the first article of the constitution, and look at section 4. It says Congress Shall assemble at least once in every year and such meeting shall be on the first monday in december. Now, 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 each house shall constitute a quorum to do business. And a smaller number may sad journ from day fo day and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members under such penalties as each house may provide. Flip over to the next section 6. Senators and representatives shall be privilege from arrest in attendance of their session in the respective houses. This is in the 1780s when the constitution was drafted and rat feud. Ratified. 100 years later the Supreme Court cited, 1892, the Supreme Court said the constitution requires, quote, the presence of a majority. And when that majority is present the power of the house arise. This is simple for folks back home. We have the greatest, most powerful, most free nation in the history of the world. We celebrate that on memorial day, 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. We are still a grand experiment in the ideas of liberties and selfgovernance. Our constitution that is based upon identity dethat we have a government of, by, and for the people, based on particular foundations and one of them is important. The members that are elected, the representatives who are elected to represent all the people throughout the country will come together physically and arm wrestle over public policy. You have very different ideas, very different principles, philosophies thats represented. Thats kind of the point. But the idea is we would all get together and Work Together to find consensus to move the ball forward for the most people. Thats the premise of our constitution. Thats the premise of our republic. You cant have a republic operate any other way. We dont have a king who is a sovereign. The people are the sovereign. Thats why meeting together and assembling and having a physical presence is all about. You cant do that by video. You certainly cant do it by proxy. So thats what this is about. I tell you, i represent myself in this lawsuit, all of us are signed on as plaintiffs. We also have constituents. I talked to my constituent who signed on as a plaintiff last night, lorene spratt, shes deeply upset about this. Shes a patriot. She votes in every election. She is afraid that our votes are watereddown and our constitution is being violated and she has the right to be heard. I think it goes to the Supreme Court very quickly and the answer is Pretty Simple in the book that we defer to our refer our colleagues to. Ill defer back to the majority leader, future majority leader, evin mccarthy. Mr. Mccarthy open it up to questions. Reporter do you have reaction to leader hoyers remarks that the g. O. P. Senate is already voting, basically proxy voting with unanimous consent, get your reaction to that . Mr. Mccarthy no. Anybody can object in here. What were finding is when you have 71 democrats put a vote to somebody else, their constituents arent being heard. They dont know whats coming up. They are not participating in it. Its unconstitutional. Yes, sir. Reporter whats the practical effect of the lawsuit . You are not going to stop the proxy vote happening today. What do you see mr. Mccarthy