Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy are under rising pressure to get their members back to work amid an unprecedented national crisis — but also keep them safe in the Petri dish of the U.S. Capitol.
And with lawmakers tentatively returning in just over a week despite coronavirus cases still climbing in the region, House leaders are racing to find a way to do both.
The House is still only in early preparation for returning to Washington, sorting out the massive logistical challenge that involves keeping hundreds of members and thousands of aides and Capitol support staff safe as they gather for the first time in two months for hearings, news conferences and caucus huddles.
“Think of the United States Congress as a massive convention involving thousands of people. We have to make sure we have extremely strict public health protocols,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who sits on the House Administration Committee. “We really need to think through our responsibilities to other people in this process.”
At the same time, House leaders are also searching for a backup plan — how to allow the chamber to function if lawmakers must stay away from Washington even longer. A bipartisan agreement, so far, remains out of reach.
Some lawmakers and senior aides say the House may need to delay its return beyond May 11. Democratic leaders already dropped plans to come back on Monday shortly after announcing the decision, facing a backlash from lawmakers in both parties who worried it would be too dangerous. The Senate still plans to return Monday, despite protests from some of its Democratic members about the public health risk.
The Capitol physician informed members of the House Administration panel Friday that coronavirus cases may not peak in the D.C. region until mid- or even late May and the area might not see a steady decline in cases until June.
During the bipartisan briefing, which also included the architect of the Capitol, members peppered officials with questions on everything from whether they could require their colleagues to wear masks to how they should stay safe in the historic building’s small elevators.
The House follows federal guidelines, Dr. Brian Monahan told the members, which recommend that people voluntarily don face masks when social distancing isn’t possible. Many Republicans defiantly refused to wear masks when the House met last week to vote on the latest coronavirus relief bill, leaving Democrats aghast.
Capitol officials, including the architect and the physician’s office, are preparing guidance for when members do return, with advice about how many staffers can safely work in offices of varying size. And they’re conducting analyses of various spaces on Capitol Hill, noting which rooms would be safe to hold committee hearings or other meetings.
The bipartisan briefing, which attendees described as “very collegial,” had a multipart mission. The meeting was purposely conducted via a video-conferencing application called Webex, a test run of sorts to see how other committees could hold remote hearings in the future.
But the prospect of setting up a partially remote House has only intensified the partisan divide among party leaders — with both sides facing mounting frustration from members who are eager to take part in official business while they remain homebound.
Pelosi has vowed to plow ahead with a rules overhaul to temporarily allow proxy voting, with or without Republicans in the coming weeks. McCarthy, meanwhile, has rejected the idea, expressing concern that a single lawmaker could vote on behalf of 200 representatives.
Instead, McCarthy proposed bringing back a few committees first and allowing them to work in larger spaces like the House chamber, where they can practice safe social distancing. Then, after the committees have produced legislation, leaders can call back the rest of the House for a floor vote.
McCarthy and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) are leading a bipartisan task force on the subject. The two have exchanged papers, but people familiar with the discussions are skeptical they will reach an agreement on rules changes in the coming days.
Hoyer and other Democrats have argued that committees could securely hold hearings over video-conferencing software, but many Republicans remain resistant to allowing panels to vote on legislation away from the Capitol.
“[Republicans] want hearings as much as Democrats do — this is their return to the national stage,” one senior Democratic aide said. “The idea that you can’t somehow have a public video conference that works after eight weeks of trying? No.”
At least one panel, a House Appropriations subcommittee, plans to hold an in-person hearing on the coronavirus response next Wednesday. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who leads the subcommittee, had sought to bring in one of the Trump administration’s top health officials, Dr. Anthony Fauci, but the White House blocked the request, according to a committee spokesman. A former Obama administration health official, Dr. Thomas Frieden, will testify instead, potentially with other witnesses.
McCarthy has also pointed to a number of legislative items that need work, including spending measures, waterways legislation and the annual defense policy bill.
“You crawl before you walk, and you walk before you run,” McCarthy told reporters during a weekly press call Thursday.
McCarthy’s pitch to enable committee work comes as lawmakers in both parties have grown increasingly annoyed that they’ve been asked to vote on massive coronavirus bills that were hashed out by leadership in back-room deals. One GOP lawmaker told POLITICO that they expressed those frustrations directly to leadership, voicing concern that rank-and-file members are being cut out of the legislative process.
While party leaders scramble to figure out a plan, some lawmakers are taking matters into their own hands. The Congressional Progressive Caucus held a virtual roundtable earlier this week, which featured the testimony of several expert witnesses.
“We can clearly do this remotely, as we’re doing right now,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said as he closed the hourlong roundtable. “We wanted to show that this is possible. We can move forward and be safe and do it remotely.”
And the Problem Solvers Caucus is also forging ahead with a solution of its own: Starting next week, the bipartisan group is planning to hold virtual floor debates on a number of topics. But it is unlikely to silence the growing calls to get back to work.
“It staggers many of us, especially freshmen, that we are so ill-prepared as an institution to conduct our business,” Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, said in a recent interview.
“I don’t mind traveling to Washington. I don’t mind having to vote on the House floor if that’s what we need to do,” Phillips said. “But in the interest of time, we have to adapt.”