Frederica Wilson was in ‘quarantine status’ when she voted in Nancy Pelosi for Speaker

Miami Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson cast her vote Sunday for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from inside a new plexiglass enclosure that sprang up on the House floor overnight, a way to keep House members designated as being in “quarantine status” separate from other lawmakers.

And on Tuesday, Wilson sent a letter to the House clerk asking to vote remotely through a proxy, Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, a move that some lawmakers have employed when they have been exposed to COVID-19 or infected.

“I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency, and I hereby grant the authority to cast my vote by proxy to the Honorable Jahana Hayes,” Wilson wrote.

But Wilson, a Miami Gardens resident who represents a heavily Democratic district in northern Miami-Dade County and southern Broward County, hasn’t said if she’d tested positive for COVID or been quarantined. Her office has not answered questions about what required her to be quarantined during the key vote for Pelosi. She has not said whether she traveled to Washington by plane for the vote.

A Capitol official said that Wilson was one of three lawmakers in “quarantine status” who voted from the chamber-inside-the-chamber at the discretion of the doctor in charge of keeping Congress safe during the pandemic. “Quarantine status” for members of Congress wasn’t defined in a statement from Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician for Congress, but does include a recent negative COVID test.

In a statement, Monahan said the special enclosure was built to “ensure continuity of operations of essential functions” during the pandemic.

For months, members of the House of Representatives have been able to vote remotely due to the pandemic, but Sunday’s vote for House Speaker was the first vote of the new Congress, before new rules were in place to allow members to vote remotely. That required Wilson and other lawmakers to show up in person on Sunday if they wanted to vote.

Miami-based members of Congress frequently fly to Washington to cast votes on commercial flights, putting them in close contact with dozens of people as they travel.

Lawmakers like Sen. Rick Scott and Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart didn’t travel after a positive test. Scott spent two weeks quarantined at home in November and missed a key Senate vote for President Donald Trump’s Federal Reserve Board nominee. Diaz-Balart quarantined in Washington after becoming the first member of Congress to test positive for the virus in March.

Wilson’s in-person presence at Sunday’s vote was important. House Democrats lost seats in the 2020 election, and Pelosi’s margin for error was small in her race against House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for Speaker.

Pelosi won the election 216-209, with two Democrats voting for other candidates and three Democrats voting “present” but not casting votes for either Pelosi or McCarthy.

Two South Florida lawmakers missed the vote. Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings didn’t travel to Washington as he fights pancreatic cancer. He was officially sworn in on Tuesday. Republican Rep.-elect Maria Elvria Salazar hasn’t been sworn in yet after checking into the hospital on Dec. 23 with a heart arrhythmia and testing positive for COVID-19.

Salazar didn’t announce her positive COVID test for eight days, though she said in a Dec. 31 statement she plans to quarantine for at least 14 days. Salazar did not respond to a request for comment on why she waited to announce her positive test or when she plans to be sworn in.

Republicans said they weren’t informed of the plexiglass chamber inside the House of Representatives until they showed up to vote on Sunday. And at least one Democratic lawmaker, Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore, voted from the floor of the House of Representatives on Sunday despite testing positive for COVID-19 six days earlier. Moore said she was “medically cleared” to travel ahead of the vote and on Tuesday said she was “COVID-recovered and safe to work.”

McCarthy and House Republicans criticized Sunday’s session in a letter to Pelosi, saying that she allowed “the crowding of hundreds of members on the House floor for extended periods of time and confusion during yesterday’s session.”

They also criticized the construction of the mini chamber that Wilson voted from.

The other two lawmakers who cast votes from the structure were Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, who voted for Pelosi, and Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, who voted for McCarthy. They also voted from the enclosure at the direction of Monahan, the House doctor.

One member of Congress, Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger, tested positive after appearing in Washington for Sunday’s vote. Granger’s office said she was asymptomatic after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine last month.

“The purpose of this structure was to allow members who elected to break COVID-19 quarantine to vote,” McCarthy wrote to Pelosi. “The reality is, it was built because it was politically beneficial for you to have members vote on your behalf for Speaker.”

This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 6:36 PM.