‘It’s scary.’ Miami members of Congress isolate, want remote votes due to coronavirus

Miami Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart’s positive coronavirus test on Wednesday — he doesn’t know how he contracted it — set off a frenzy among Floridians in Congress, with multiple lawmakers announcing plans to self-quarantine and calls for congressional leaders to implement remote voting.

“I have family here, and I’m just going to put myself in a different part of the house,” said Miami Rep. Frederica Wilson. “We don’t want to be carriers of the virus and not even know it. Since I found out about Mr. Diaz-Balart, [a positive test] has crossed my mind. It’s scary.”

Wilson, 77, is at a higher risk for hospitalization if she become infected with novel coronavirus due to her age. Wilson told the Miami Herald she plans to self-quarantine in Miami on the advice of her doctor after attending a meeting with Diaz-Balart last Wednesday.

Wilson isn’t showing symptoms and isn’t planning on getting tested unless she develops a fever — a symptom of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — because she “doesn’t want to compromise the system” with one more test.

But under current congressional rules, members of Congress aren’t able to vote if they are self-quarantining.

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who is under self-quarantine after interacting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s staff in Miami, was unable to participate in the U.S. Senate’s coronavirus relief package vote on Wednesday.

Floridians in Congress are now calling for remote voting, even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected the idea in recent weeks.

“This pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to the country’s economic system, but at the same time Congress must be able to respond to COVID-19 without jeopardizing lawmakers, staff or further spreading the virus,” Miami Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala’s spokesperson Carlos Condarco said. “The congresswoman supports electronic voting until the risk subsides.”

But implementing remote voting presents a Catch-22 for lawmakers. Changing congressional rules to allow remote voting could require members to get on a plane to Washington to vote on the new measure, with the potential for spreading the disease, the very thing Congress is trying to address.

As the House and Senate consider a massive coronavirus relief bill that could cost $1 trillion and include checks for every American, a Democratic aide said there’s discussions among House members to pass the bill with a simple quorum, meaning 218 of the House’s 435 members would need to be present.

Bills could also be voted on over a period of many hours, allowing lawmakers to maintain social distancing while voting, but that solution presents problems for House members like Wilson who left Washington and don’t want to return by plane.

Voting in the U.S. Senate is less of an issue because senators are physically present in Washington this week. Ninety-eight of the Senate’s 100 members voted on Wednesday, with Scott and Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner not voting due to self-quarantining.

Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Naples, and Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Miami, also called for remote voting in response to the coronavirus.

“I’ve been very vocal about trying to change the rules in the House during an emergency,” Mucarsel-Powell said. “We need to have a way to continue to legislate and we need to consider remote voting.”

Mucarsel-Powell said many lawmakers are open to changing congressional voting rules through a fast-track procedure that doesn’t require them to show up physically for a vote.

As of Thursday afternoon, four Floridians in Congress, Scott, Diaz-Balart, Wilson and Central Florida Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy announced that they are self-quarantining.

Diaz-Balart is the only Florida lawmaker so far to test positive for coronavirus. The other lawmakers all said they are feeling fine.

Diaz-Balart’s chief of staff Cesar Gonzalez said Thursday the congressman is “doing better” and worked a full day from his couch in Washington on Wednesday before being informed of his positive test, including calls with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

Diaz-Balart initially self-quarantined early Saturday morning after voting on the House floor because his wife Tia has a pre-existing medical condition and he didn’t want to put her in danger after working a full week in Washington.

Diaz-Balart does not know how he contracted the coronavirus, Gonzalez said. Diaz-Balart did not meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Miami last week, where some of Bolsonaro’s staffers who eventually tested positive met with Scott and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who tested positive for the coronavirus last week.

He also did not have contact with Utah Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams, the other member of Congress who tested positive Wednesday.

“We have no clue where he got it from,” Gonzalez said.

Soto, the Central Florida representative, said he briefly interacted with Diaz-Balart during a meeting last week, but current CDC guidelines say his interactions would be low-risk and he is feeling fine, so he does not plan to self-quarantine.

The House’s attending physician issued guidance to lawmakers that contact with Diaz-Balart or McAdams on the House floor during votes “would be considered to be low risk exposures and no additional measures are required other than for them to report any illness should they become ill.”

Shalala, Mucarsel-Powell, Wilson and Miami Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz all said they are healthy and not experiencing symptoms as of Thursday afternoon. They all support remote voting.

“After consulting with the attending physician of Congress, he determined that because of the timing of my interactions with the members, I am at very low risk,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “Based on that and my lack of symptoms, he advised that self-isolation was not necessary. As for remote voting, I would be supportive of a safer, remote voting option if it can accommodate debate and negotiation, which is essential to the legislative process.”

But even though a majority of Miami lawmakers aren’t experiencing symptoms, they worry about returning to Washington as the virus spreads.

“The reality is we have two members that have tested positive, members that have self-quarantined,” Mucarsel-Powell said. “By Sunday, I’m expecting that number to be twice as large.”

Miami Herald reporter Bianca Padró Ocasio and McClatchy DC reporter Emma Dumain contributed to this report.

Alex Daugherty: 202-383-6049, @alextdaugherty

This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 2:01 PM.