Editor’s Note: Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, was elected to Congress in 1996 and serves as chairman of the House Rules Committee. Ady Barkan is a social justice activist who has built two programs at The Center for Popular Democracy, and is the founder of the Be A Hero PAC. His book, Eyes to the Wind: A Memoir of Love and Death, Hope and Resistance, was published in September by Atria Books. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the authors. View more opinion at CNN.
Now more than ever, people are relying on technology to communicate with friends and family during the Covid-19 pandemic. Video meetings have allowed us to cross state lines, reunite with loved ones, and visit each other’s living rooms, all without risking the spread of infection – or getting up from the couch. But this technology has been helping Americans communicate for years, and it’s time Congress embraced it to continue legislating during this pandemic.
For one of us, the use of technology as a means of communication is a deeply personal and painful fact of life. We first met one another when the House Rules Committee held a hearing on Medicare for All legislation last year. But it wasn’t just any old hearing: it was unique because Barkan, who is dying from a neurological disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), testified using a computer that converts text into speech.
ALS is a terrible sickness that sends a creeping paralysis up the body, rendering nearly every muscle useless. The illness stops people from eating, because the muscles in their mouths are paralyzed and stops them from walking, because their legs are, too. The worst part, by far, is losing the ability to speak and communicate with loved ones.
Which is why the technology that tracks eye movements, allowing on-screen typing and synthetic speech, is such a lifesaver. During the Medicare for All hearing, this technology allowed us to have a powerful conversation that changed hearts and minds and made the case that health care should be a human right.
Seeing how some people have used technology in transformative ways, it can be difficult to listen to elected officials who oppose the House of Representatives’ embrace of technology during this pandemic.
The changes made to allow for remote work are already proving skeptics wrong. Committees have been successfully holding virtual hearings, and remote proxy voting, which allows members unable to vote in person because of the pandemic to have their vote cast as directed through a designated colleague present on the House Floor, was conducted for the first time this week.
Sadly, House Republicans have moved to challenge proxy voting with a lawsuit. But this flies in the face of the Constitution, as well as more than 100 years of legal precedent, including Supreme Court cases, which have all made clear that the House has the ability to set its own rules.
Constitutional experts have reaffirmed this. Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, has concluded, the “Constitution bestows on each House of Congress broad discretion to determine the rules for its own proceedings … This authority is expansive and would include the ability to adopt a rule to permit proxy voting.” Deborah Pearlstein, a constitutional law professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law, has said the “Constitution … contains no specific requirement of physical presence for members to vote.”
Things have changed a lot in the last 231 years, from the way members of Congress vote to the way they count a quorum. The House does not conduct its business in 2020 exactly as it did in 1789 and this unprecedented time requires some changes.
It no longer makes sense for members to travel frequently from their home states – some of which are coronavirus hotspots – to convene together in the Capitol week after week. Members risk spreading this contagious virus to everyone they come in contact with, from fellow travelers and staff to the press and the hundreds of people who help keep the House in operation.
Even the lowest scientific estimates for fatality rates available for Covid-19 show that it is six times more deadly than the seasonal flu. And given how infectious the virus is, just one person with the coronavirus could kick off a snowball effect that leads to thousands of new cases.
Asymptomatic members could spread this virus and not even know it. There is no telling how many people they encounter who could have compromised immune systems, pre-existing conditions, or other risk factors.
Convening Congress must not turn into a super-spreader event
Utilizing technology during this pandemic is not a radical idea. At least 16 states, and a dozen countries along with the European Parliament have all implemented some form of remote procedures to safely conduct official proceedings. The Senate has already found ways to continue legislating through hybrid in-person and virtual hearings. Clearly, this can be done in Congress.
Enormous numbers of essential workers, from medical professionals to grocery store clerks, have had to risk their health and the health of their families during this pandemic. Others have been furloughed or worse. This is a crisis the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression.
Make no mistake, the work of Congress is essential. But in the 21st century, the need for members of Congress to gather together in person during a worldwide public health emergency is not.
Remote voting on the House floor and holding virtual committee proceedings are not and should not be permanent – no one is looking to change the vital fabric of the House of Representatives. Members do their best work in person and side by side. But this is a temporary step that must be taken given this pandemic, and it can be done successfully.
For many Americans, utilizing technology is not a matter of convenience – it is a matter of necessity. So many people, including Ady, rely on it to communicate with the world. Certainly, the House can temporarily utilize it to represent the American people during this health crisis as well.