WASHINGTON — House Democrats postponed a planned vote for a rule change that would allow proxy voting: a way members could vote in place of someone who is not present. Party leaders backed away from the idea after Republicans opposed the resolution.

Instead, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a conference call Wednesday that a bipartisan group of lawmakers would be tasked with evaluating remote proxy voting and other issues. The bill passed Tuesday by the Senate for an additional $484 billion in federal aid for coronavirus relief is still scheduled for a vote Thursday.

Before the sudden pullback, Pelosi had expressed support for the proxy voting system, recommended by congressional leaders in the Rules Committee.

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Irvine Freshman Rep. Katie Porter was one of the first members to advocate for remote voting, saying time and time again that Congress should "lead by example."

She had to miss the last $2 trillion stimulus package vote because she was self-quarantining with no remote voting option. Porter first introduced the idea of remote voting back in mid-March, which received skepticism from congressional leaders of both parties.

Before the plan was scrapped, Porter said the problem is it takes time to make change. 

Another option was to use a secure portal to vote, but leaders said no system seemed reliable enough. Either way, there’s still some disapproval. Minority Leader and California Republican Kevin McCarthy said members should be present to debate legislation and said proxy voting puts too much power into one person’s hands, although McCarthy also said he’s open to hearing new ideas about remote voting.

“We are trying to pass a $2 trillion bill by working through this,” McCarthy said. “When we look at these guidelines, we might see that the House could come back and work. Come back in a safe manner; we need to have that vote on the floor in the safe, in a safe manner.”

Porter said it just seems safer to follow coronavirus distancing guidelines and even though she believes remote voting should have been approved last month, she’s willing and ready to fly anytime to DC to make a rules change and to consider more coronavirus relief bills.

Porter self-quarantined for a couple of weeks, and now said she’s feeling much better. She said her flu and coronavirus test came back negative but is raising concerns about false negatives which some studies state can come over 30 percent of the time.