The pandemic is subsiding, and GOP lawmakers want to end Zoom hearings that replaced in-person committee business meetings for the past year.
In a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, panel Republicans declared it’s time to return to pre-pandemic business in the Capitol.
The committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Thursday on paid leave for federal employees, but it won’t be in person.
Instead, Maloney, a New York Democrat, plans another fully virtual hearing.
Republicans say it’s time to meet in person and hold the hearing in the committee room.
“Masks mandates and social distancing requirements have been lifted across the country, including in Washington D.C.,” Republicans wrote in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. “There is absolutely no reason at this point to justify requiring a fully remote hearing while Congress is in session.”
House Democrats and Republicans have been engaged in a battle for several weeks over the pandemic safeguards extended by Democrats in the Capitol.
While all House Democrats are vaccinated against COVID-19, a number of Republicans are not vaccinated and have no plans to get the shot.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, recently dropped a mask mandate for those who are vaccinated. She had at first extended mask requirements for everyone, even after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped the requirement for those who are vaccinated.
The mandate included fining lawmakers who entered the chamber without masks.
Pelosi blamed Republicans who have refused to get the shot.
While House lawmakers are no longer required to wear masks in the chamber, Pelosi has extended an allowance for remote hearings and for proxy voting that does not expire until July 3.
Democratic leaders won’t say whether they plan to extend those rules again after next month.
“The speaker has been very clear, with respect to the coverage period being extended, that we’re going to follow the public health guidance moving forward,” House Democratic Caucus Committee Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, said Wednesday.
“There hasn’t been a strong push one way or the other” from lawmakers about extending the remote business rules, he said.
Republicans say there is no reason committee business cannot return to normal.
“Our hearings should be conducted in-person going forward, or at the very least you should offer a hybrid option for members who wish to participate in person,” Republicans wrote Wednesday. “As America reopens, it is past time that our Committee resumes in-person activities as well.”
The House Judiciary Committee is holding an in-person hearing Wednesday with no mask requirements, Republicans noted.
An aide to Maloney said Republicans are to blame for ignoring social distancing and mask rules in the committee room that are required because some members are unvaccinated, under recommendations from the attending physician of Congress.
“As a result of their actions, the committee decided to hold this week’s hearing remotely to ensure that we can protect the health of all members and staff while we consider how to hold hearings safely in in-person settings going forward,” an aide said.
