The previous round of coronavirus stimulus, the CARES Act, hit a serious snag when one member of Congress, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), demanded a quorum call, meaning the legislation couldn't pass by simple voice vote and hundreds of members had to drag themselves back to D.C. in the middle of the night to record their votes.
The stunt left members of both parties enraged with Massie — and left Congress with an urgent need, amid the prospect of more upcoming rounds of stimulus, to change the rules to prevent such a stunt from having such a disastrous impact.
According to The New York Times, one such rule change under consideration would be to allow members of Congress to vote remotely.
"Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, have both expressed opposition to remote voting, insisting that lawmakers can fulfill their duties without making such tradition-shattering changes in the way Congress operates," reported Sheryl Gay Stolberg. "But their resistance is running up against mounting logistical and political challenges, and rank-and-file members — as well as some senior lawmakers who once resisted the idea and scholars who study the issue — say the current ad hoc method of legislating is both untenable and antithetical to the way Congress is supposed to work."
"Both Ms. Pelosi and Mr. McConnell have scrapped plans for their chambers to reconvene next week, announcing that they would push the date until May 4 at the earliest, amid a raging debate over when it is safe for the country to begin pulling back on the social distancing practices that have slowed the spread of the coronavirus," wrote Stolberg. "And lawmakers in both parties say the strategy House leaders employed to pass coronavirus relief legislation in recent weeks — scheduling consensus action without a recorded vote and hoping that nobody will object — is not sustainable."
"Rank-and-file members in both parties and both chambers say it is too dangerous for them to return, and they want to avoid a repeat of the Massie episode. Moreover, they do not want legislation hashed out in private by their leaders. They want a chance, they say, to do what Congress is meant to do: debate legislation, offer amendments and vote," wrote Stolberg. Meanwhile, "Good-government advocates see the moves as an imperative. Without a way to meet remotely, the House and Senate have no way to conduct oversight or act as a check on President Trump, who was impeached on charges of abuse of power and this week declared he had 'total' authority to supersede governors’ decisions about whether to reopen their states."
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