Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Wednesday against President Biden for what he describes as the “unlawful” signing of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 bill, supported by just nine House Republicans, was passed days before Christmas with more than half of the members absent and voting by proxy. Paxton’s case contends that the U.S. Constitution mandates a quorum be present to vote on legislation, without which the House can only “adjourn from day to day” and “compel the attendance of absent Members,” making the bill’s passage illegitimate.
“Though President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, his signature was nullity because the act never ‘passed the House of Representatives,’” according to the lawsuit.
Members filed proxy letters under the pretense of the “ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” though former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi noted at the time it was more “related to the weather” and Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy slammed absent members for “trying to catch planes” rather than “fighting” for the American people.
“Nowhere does the U.S. Constitution authorize the House to pass trillion-dollar bills when more than half the members are in their homes, vacationing, or are anywhere physically other than the United States Capitol Building,” said Paxton in a statement. “Our Founders would be turning over in their graves if they could see how former Speaker Nancy Pelosi used proxy voting to upend our constitutional system. That is especially true regarding the 1.7 trillion-dollar bill that should have never been ‘passed.’”
“Joe Biden, who’s been in Washington for half a century, should have known he couldn’t legally sign it either,” Paxton continued. “But he never seems to let the law get in the way of him doing whatever he wants to do.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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