Only 201 members were present when the House voted on the spending package in December 2022; Paxton, in his lawsuit, argues that because more than 50 percent of the members were missing, the necessary quorum wasn’t satisfied.
According to the complaint, the U.S. Constitution requires a quorum of members of the House of Representatives to be present for the lower body of Congress to perform any action.
“Our Founders would be turning over in their graves if they could see how former Speaker Nancy Pelosi used proxy voting to upend our constitutional system. That is especially true regarding the 1.7 trillion-dollar bill that should have never been ‘passed.’ Joe Biden ... should have known he couldn’t legally sign it either.”
Proxy voting was implemented in 2020 by then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19. Members of the House were allowed to continue to vote without being present through December 2022. Republicans ended the practice when they became the majority party in January.
The spending measure allocates funds to federal agencies for the balance of the fiscal year 2023 and includes supplementary funds for disaster relief and Ukraine assistance and extends a number of expiring authorities.
The $1.7 trillion spending bill alters or establishes a variety of programs addressing a wide range of policy issues and includes 12 appropriation bills to fund agencies during the current fiscal year, including the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act; Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act; and the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
The White House didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.