Michigan Dem Chooses Vacation Over Crucial Committee Votes
20th September 2021
Just days after House members returned to Capitol Hill from their August recess, Michigan Democrat Haley Stevens skipped hearings on President Joe Biden’s record-setting budget to take a vacation.
Fresh from a month-long recess, Stevens married software engineer Rob Gulley in a September 3 ceremony. According to the Democrat’s wedding registry, the couple planned to “head up north right after the wedding” and accepted cash contributions to fund “boating, couples massage, [and] dinner” on the honeymoon.
The trip coincided with two House Committee on Education and Labor markup sessions during which members voted on an array of amendments to Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan. Stevens, who has served on the committee since she joined Congress in 2019, missed votes on at least a dozen amendments, including one that would prohibit funds in the bill from going to universities that host Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes.
Stevens did not return a request for comment.
Priorities, man, priorities. If you’re in a safe seat (Dem – Michigan – ’nuff said), and your party has a solid majority in your house, you can take a little time to smell the flowers. It’s not like anybody really depends on you to show up or anything.