The U.S. House has been recessed for two weeks, but convened again on Monday. Yet Rep. Mary Peltola, Alaska’s only representative in Congress, won’t be at work for a third week because she is fishing in Alaska. She’s taking time off, while others are working. Next week, the House is back in recess, which means a whole month off for Peltola.
It’s a pattern that goes back decades for her, as Peltola has skipped work before to go berry picking in years past, much to the chagrin of her former employers.
Last year she skipped out on field hearings in Anchorage for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that she serves on, instead attending a glitzy campaign fundraiser in Colorado.
Peltola’s news release about her planned absence was not widely distributed on Monday, and was not posted to her official website press release page.
Peltola’s absence means she won’t have to face Capitol Hill reporters and their uncomfortable questions about her wholehearted endorsement of Joe Biden, her assessment that he is one of the “sharpest, smartest” people she has met in D.C., and her statement last week to the Fairbanks News Miner that her opinion of him is now “irrelevant.”
Her votes, too, will be irrelevant because she won’t vote at all, carrying on her tradition of having one of the lowest attendance and voting records in Congress. She will avoid having to be on the record on a key piece of legislation this week that requires voters to be citizens of the United States in order to cast their ballots. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have been told to vote against a bill that implements greater safeguards against non-citizens being registered to vote in federal elections. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas in May, will come up for a vote this week.
Congressional candidate Nick Begich made a note of Peltola’s disappearing act.
“Mary Peltola SKIPS another week of work to go fishing?!? Mary Peltola just came off a week of recess, but the House is back in session. Despite already having one of the worst attendance records in the House, Alaska’s only representative in the that body is unfortunately absent this week, because she has decided fishing takes priority. The job of Alaska’s congressional representative requires dedicated attention, especially when the House is in session. Alaska can’t afford a part-time member of Congress,” Begich wrote on X.
“Extreme Democrat Mary Peltola’s conveniently timed disappearing act stinks worse than fish in the office microwave. Reeling from her own toxic decisions to bear-hug Biden, Peltola plays hooky to avoid any tough questions,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ben Petersen.
Congressional calendars are published months in advance and every member of Congress is made aware of the weeks when they can fish or campaign, and when they are expected to be back at work in D.C.
