A Texas federal judge ruled a $1.7 trillion government funding bill was unconstitutionally passed in 2022 due to a pandemic-era rule allowing the House of Representatives to vote by proxy instead of in person.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has brought multiple lawsuits against the Biden administration, asked the courts to block a provision of the bill that issued stronger legal protections to pregnant workers. In making the ruling, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix in Lubbock made a “limited” ruling on one of two provisions Paxton sought to have blocked while the rest of the spending bill remains in place.
In finding the bill was wrongfully passed, Hendrix blocked the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers, such as time off after childbirth.
“Congress acted egregiously by passing the largest spending bill in U.S. history with fewer than half the members of the House bothering to do their jobs, show up, and vote in person,” Paxton said in a statement following the ruling.
Texas challenged the spending bill last February, urging the courts to block the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security’s Alternatives to Detention Case Management Pilot Program. In his ruling, Hendrix found that Texas did not have the standing to challenge the provision that provides case management and additional support to noncitizens in immigration proceedings.
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The spending bill was passed in December 2022 under a pandemic-driven proxy vote rule, which former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) helped enact. After Republicans secured the House majority in the November 2022 elections, the party agreed to end the use of proxy voting during the 117th Congress despite GOP lawmakers engaging in the rule.
“Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi abused proxy voting under the pretext of COVID-19 to pass this law, then Biden signed it, knowing they violated the Constitution,” Paxton added. “This was a stunning violation of the rule of law. I am relieved the Court upheld the Constitution.”
