Ranking Member McGovern, 17 House Democrats Demand Answers on Alleged House Rules Violation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Rules Committee Ranking Member James P. McGovern (D-MA) led 17 Democratic members in a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson demanding answers and next steps regarding a serious breach of House rules. The letter follows an incident in which a Republican member allegedly cast votes on behalf of another lawmaker who was not physically in Washington, D.C. at the time. 

“This is not a partisan political issue; this is about the integrity of votes in the House of Representatives and there is precedent to hold Members accountable for engaging in this kind of behavior. In 1987, a Democratic House Majority passed a resolution by an overwhelming bipartisan vote to reprimand a Democratic Member for engaging in the exact same conduct Mr. Donalds and Ms. Cammack have been accused of,” wrote the Members.

On February 7, 2025, Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) was recorded as voting on roll call votes despite compelling evidence that supports the allegation that Mr. Donalds was not present in Washington, but rather was on the other side of the country in Los Angeles, California, taping an episode of a political talk show. According to reports, Representative Kat Cammack (R-FL) conspired to facilitate the deception by using Donalds’ voting card to register his votes—despite him being roughly 2,600 miles from the House Chamber. 

Proxy voting is currently prohibited under House Rules.

The members go on to point out Speaker Johnson’s failure to address the incident: “Given the seriousness of this violation and questions about the integrity of House vote totals, your delay in addressing actions by Members of your own conference is unacceptable. It has been over a month since this incident took place without any action — or even a statement from you. However, we know you are able to act quickly on matters of Member discipline; it took you less than 36 hours to censure a Democratic Member for breach of decorum.”

The letter presses Speaker Johnson with four key questions: 

• Does he support his members’ actions in violating House rules to vote by proxy?  
• Does he plan to hold these two members accountable, and does he plan to do anything to prevent or discourage future incidents of proxy voting?
• Is he aware of other incidents where his members were in violation of the rules by using proxy voting?
• Has there been any legislation passed by the House this Congress that was decided by fraudulent proxy votes?

Speaker Johnson has called proxy voting “unconstitutional,” working with House Republicans to change the rules and forbid the practice despite records showing he voted by proxy 39 times during the 116^th Congress after Democrats instituted common-sense reforms allowing Members of Congress to cast their vote remotely if they were physically unable to be in the House Chamber due to the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

📄 Read the full letter here: democrats-rules.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-rules.house.gov/files/documents/letter-to-speaker-johnson-03-26-2025_0.pdf

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 The Committee on Rules was formally constituted as a select committee on April 2, 1789 and is one of the oldest committees in the House. An appointment to the Rules Committee gives Members significant ability to influence virtually all major legislation as it heads to the House Floor for a vote.