Press Releases

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) issued the following statement after the House voted on the HEROES Act, and a House rules change to allow proxy-voting for members of Congress:

“I voted against both partisan bills that were brought to the House floor today, the misnamed ‘HEROES Act’ and Pelosi’s ploy to allow members of Congress to transfer their floor voting responsibilities to others. While there are a couple of provisions in the HEROES Act that Congress should address, we need to wait to see how our economy is recovering before overreacting and adding trillions more to our debt. Unfortunately, the majority of this bill is a massive giveaway of taxpayer dollars, which would suppress job growth and our economic recovery. As Georgia is showing the world, opening up our economy and getting people back to work is the quickest way to restore our economy, not spending $3 trillion more in unnecessary programs.

"On July 2, 1776, Delegate Caesar Rodney road his horse all night through a massive storm, from his home in Delaware to Philadelphia, to cast a vote in the 2nd Continental Congress. Although he was deathly ill, he felt that strongly about his duty and responsibility to be present to vote. Allowing members to stay home and give their Constitutional authority to vote to someone else, is a very dangerous precedent to set. At one time Congress allowed proxy-voting in committees, but that practice ushered in such massive corruption and consolidation of power, the practice was ended in the 1990s. Allowing proxy-voting for votes on the U.S. House floor could be much worse. Members could be pressured to give their proxy to leadership, in exchange for prime committee assignments or other perks. Not only does proxy-voting contradict our Constitutional principles, and break over 200 years of historic precedent, Congress looks like it is running from the problem, instead of working to fix it.”