Virtual government

Dog barking isn’t usually part of the congressional soundtrack, but we’re living in unusual times. A crucial hearing in the Senate this week was punctuated with background noise, including woofs, after its chair, star witnesses and several senators called in from remote locations— proof that Congress is going to have to learn to live with the virus, like the rest of us. Thankfully, the House of Representatives is getting ready to do just that.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., long-promised resolution enabling remote operations may finally come to a vote. A bipartisan review of the matter has resulted in what looks likely to be a party-line split; Republicans rejected the most ambitious aspects of a proposal to allow lawmakers to hold hearings, factfind, mark up, depose and, yes, vote— all from afar. But what Democrats have cooked up is a smart time-buying step along a longer path of modernization that should end with a legislature truly able to govern in a crisis.

The floor votes themselves are also a work in progress. The plan is to start with proxy voting wherein members at home give express written instructions to members at the Capitol to cast an aye or no for them. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who has been helming his party’s efforts, says he’s hopeful the House will soon allow representatives to vote for themselves by coming face-to-face with the clerk via videoconferencing

In other words, there’s space to get this right—but Congress should use that time efficiently and effectively to create remote versions of all its processes.

The House is finally beginning a cautious walk toward a legislature able to carry out its constitutional mandate and protect its members at the same time—a course that at least 12 states around the country are also taking. Republican holdouts in the House and in the slow-moving Senate have no excuse not to join in the tiptoe.