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LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM
(Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, as you know, as a result of COVID-19 and our discussions with the Capitol physician, we have organized voting in a way that we have seven different segments at 5-minute intervals so that a limited number of Members will vote in every 5-minute segment. That is obviously designed to keep us as safe as possible, our staffs as safe as possible, so we get off the floor, and they have to be on the floor.
This vote that we just had was about 1 hour and 5 minutes. Obviously, if you take seven segments at 5 minutes a segment, that is 35 minutes. We have added another 5 minutes for people who missed their segment, which would be 40 minutes. We are starting to average 20, 25, 30, 35 minutes beyond that 40 minutes.
Therefore, I wanted to announce to every Member that I will be recommending that we close votes 45 minutes after they start. Bang.
Now, I will tell my side--which probably has this responsibility more than the other side because we use proxies more than you do--that if you hold a proxy, not only do you have a responsibility to yourself to vote in a timely fashion, but if you miss the vote, acting in a fiduciary capacity for another Member who can't be here because of health-related issues, and you do not vote, that will not be a happy situation.
So I want you to know, I am going to be talking to the Speaker--I have already talked to her--that 45 minutes after that first bell rings I want the gavel to come down. And, hopefully, we will all recognize when the bell rings that we will have to vote in the next 45 minutes. Now, that cannot be a real burden on anybody. Cannot.
It is simply that we look to see how many people have voted--oh, well, there are 20 people out, so I don't have to worry, and that is after we have gone by the 40 minutes.
Madam Speaker, I am going to send out a notice on this as well, and I want to confirm with the Speaker, but I know, having talked to the Speaker numerous times about this issue, that she shares my view that if we are going to run this institution with respect to one another-- Don Young didn't come on this vote. Don Young is the famous--call it on time.
I want every Member to understand, this is not to penalize anybody. It is, however, to try to run this institution in a way that Members' time, which is valuable, is respected, and we simply don't waste it waiting around for one or two or five or six other people to come. I do not cast aspersions. Sometimes it is hard to get here on time, particularly if you have done something and you are in some other place.
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the time. I will be talking to the Speaker. I will notify everybody when that is going to be implemented. It may be implemented as soon as today, and we will be sending out a notice. And, by the way, everybody I talked to agrees with this.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 36
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