House Freedom Caucus, eager for return to normalcy, hits Fauci as fearmonger

House Republicans are champing at the bit for a return to normalcy as the coronavirus pandemic drags on and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi keeps the chamber shuttered until Friday.

Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, is leading the charge of arch-conservatives against the lockdown policies across the country.

Mr. Biggs said the push to reopen the economy isn't being helped by Anthony Fauci, a key member of President Trump's coronavirus task force who testified before the Senate Tuesday that reopening too fast risked unnecessary "suffering and death."

Mr. Biggs said Dr. Fauci had "replaced faith with fear and hope with despair."

"Dr. Fauci has continually used his bully pulpit to bring public criticism on governors who are seeking to open up their states," Mr. Biggs tweeted. "The remedy is to open up our society and our economy. Trust and respect our freedom."

Last week, Mr. Biggs introduced a resolution that condemned the stay-at-home orders as an unconstitutional and draconian drain on the economy and civil liberties.

The measure attracted eight Republican co-sponsors: Reps. Debbie Lesko of Arizona, Rick Crawford of Arkansas, Doug LaMalfa of California, Ron Wright of Texas, Andy Harris of Maryland, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Jody Hice of Georgia.

Mr. Harris, the sole Republican House member from Maryland, joined protesters at a rally against the lockdown last week.

The House Coronavirus Select Committee, which Republicans skeptically joined, will be holding its first hearing Wednesday. Several public health experts are scheduled to testify about plans to reopen the country safely.

Republican leadership has stopped short of the calls for rapid reopening espoused by some in the conference. Instead, they support a phased-in reopening for states and Capitol Hill.

The House is set to reconvene in full on Friday to vote on the Democrats' $3 trillion coronavirus spending bill and new rules to allow remote voting.

However, remained unclear how long members will be expected to stay in town or when they'll come back after the votes.

The voting process Friday is expected to draw out for hours — potentially all day — between debates, cleaning and the vote itself.

The last time the House voted, members were assigned to small groups to enter the chamber and given a set amount of time to cast their votes.

The process stretched out to about an hour and twenty minutes per vote.

Republicans proposed an alternative plan that would phase in an in-person return for the House.

They want to create a rotating schedule of committees — with an emphasis on those that would work on the National Defense Authorization bill, spending bills, and COVID-related first — in larger rooms. This, they argued, would allow for a full debate on key issues while giving members space to spread out.

Democrats rejected the proposal, preferring to have members work from home as much as possible. The House Rules Committee has not yet released a finalized version of this particular resolution, though they scrapped plans for a proxy voting rule change last month.