Last week, Alaska’s Rep. Mary Peltola voted against the “Show Up Act,” a bill that passed the House 221-206, which would roll back the federal rules relating to telework to what they were before the Covid pandemic, when the federal government let many workers clock in from home. The idea of the bill is to get the federal workforce back into a regular working environment and make government more accountable.
Democrats voted against the bill that requires agencies to reinstate the telework policies that were in place on Dec. 31, 2019. According to the legislation, agencies may not implement expanded telework policies unless the Office of Personnel Management certifies that such policies, among other requirements, will have a positive effect on the agency’s mission and operational costs, says the summary from HR 139.
On Tuesday, Peltola was a no-show at her Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, which had testimony from the high-ranking officials of the Federal Aviation Administration, an agency that is up for reauthorization. Top Transportation Department and FAA officials and airline industry experts, including representatives from the Airline Pilots Association, National Transportation Safety Board, National Business Aviation Association testified on aviation safety.
Alaska is the state that is arguably the most dependent on aviation and has the top cargo hub in America, the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and Peltola issued a press release in January, celebrating her influential role as a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Read Peltola’s press release at this link.
Also on Tuesday, Peltola was a no-show again in her Natural Resources Committee, where the committee met as a committee of the whole to consider the Authorization and Oversight Plan for the 118th Congress.
Related document to that committee’s deliberations is at this link: HNR 118th Authorization and Oversight Plan 01.27.23
Peltola was also a no-show for the House vote today on HR 97, which would remove the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement for non-citizens entering the United States. That measure passed 217-208, with Democrats voting against the resolution, which must also pass the Senate. The resolution also disapproves of the actions of the DC Council in allowing non-citizens to vote in the District of Columbia.
Last week, Peltola walked out of the Natural Resources Committee’s first meeting, after she said that there was too much partisan bickering. A debate about whether the House rules meant that firearms are or are not allowed in committee had ensued for about 15 minutes when Peltola walked out of the meeting, which had been going on for two hours. The meeting was an organizational meeting for the committee to establish rules and procedures. She later told reporters that the bickering was just too much for her.
Two weeks ago, Peltola was a no-show on a House floor vote on the protection of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve because, she later explained to reporters, she needed to use the restroom.
