Members of Congress sometimes go to astonishing lengths to avoid doing their jobs. Rarely working a full five-day week is old news; I’m talking about the procedural gimmicks that let members avoid tough votes on the record. House leaders occasionally move bills through the controversial “deem and pass” method when the majority know something needs to pass but would prefer not to be seen voting for it. In contrast, today Republican and Democratic leaders pulled a fast one on their own back benchers.

The “doc fix” bill delays for another year a big reduction in Medicare reimbursements for doctors, set to take effect on April 1 without action by Congress. Everyone wanted to solve the problem, but Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on how to pay for a permanent fix, and many Democrats didn’t want to vote for another short-term bill. Daniel Newhauser and Matt Fuller pick up the story in Roll Call:

[House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor left the room briefly to meet with Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. That’s when the two leaders, with the backing of their respective leadership and committee chairmen, struck an agreement to call for a voice vote on the House floor without objection, members and aides said. Earlier in the day Hoyer said he would have voted against the bill. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., asked if she went along with the voice vote plan, simply said, “Yes.”

Several members of the Republican Doctor’s Caucus, a group of physician congressmen, said they would have voted against the bill. But in the meeting with their leadership, they signed off on the tactic to allow the bill to pass. […]

When the House was called to order, Arkansas Republican Rep. Steve Womack took the gavel and immediately called for a voice vote to pass the bill. Stating that there were no objections, he deemed it passed. […]

Womack acknowledged that it was “unusual” to conduct business in that fashion, but he said that’s “because very few things go by voice in that chamber, particularly of that type of magnitude.”

How pathetic. Find language a majority can get behind or pull the bill until you figure something out.

For once I agree with Representative Steve King (R, IA-04), who told Roll Call that a surprise voice vote on a bill which otherwise would not pass “erodes our confidence in our own system.” Voice votes should be used only for uncontroversial legislation.

Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread. A catch-up post on Iowa Congressional voting is in progress.