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WASHINGTON — The microphones have been removed from the well of the House to guard against transmission of the coronavirus. Lawmakers who enter the chamber must clean their hands with sanitizer and enter through one door, then scrub again and leave through another, as if coming and going from an operating room. Once inside, they must keep their distance and take turns voting in small groups.
When members of the House return to Washington on Friday to approve a $2 trillion economic stimulus package and send it to President Trump, they will enter a Capitol where every facet of life has been altered by a pandemic.
For starters, there will be fewer of them than usual. Many of the lawmakers are at home either because they are sick or in states mandating quarantine, or because it would be difficult to travel. To accommodate them, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democratic leaders have planned for a voice vote — a plan that could fall through if there are procedural objections.
Those who do show up will operate under a different set of rules, laid out on Thursday by the sergeant-at-arms and the attending physician of the Capitol.
Only lawmakers and those who have an office in the building will be allowed to enter, meaning that staff members cannot accompany their bosses. If members want to speak on the House floor, they must notify their leaders first, and those who are not participating in debate must refrain from entering the chamber.
This is legislating in the age of the novel coronavirus, which has already infected at least two members of the House and one senator, sending dozens more lawmakers who may have been exposed into self-quarantine out of an abundance of caution.
“We have members on both sides of the aisle who have the virus. We have members who are quarantined. We have members who have challenges with their flights canceled,” Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, told reporters on Thursday. “The floor will look different.”
The precautions in the House build upon steps taken by the Senate in recent days, as lawmakers remained in Washington — against the advice of public health officials to avoid congregating in large groups — to hammer out the details of the legislation.
Votes typically scheduled for 15-minute intervals were lengthened to 30, and gloved staff served food in both the Senate lunches and in the cafeterias, so that aides and reporters in Capitol Hill eateries did not have to touch even the pre-wrapped sandwiches or bottles of soda.
Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, was spotted using his suit jacket to open doors, while other senators used elbows or tissues to push elevator buttons and turn handles. (Mr. Romney later joined the ranks of the quarantined, after having contact with Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, the first senator to test positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus, Covid-19.) Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and a doctor, was among the most vigilant, wiping down the Senate rostrum with disinfecting wipes and chastising colleagues to “social distance” on the floor of the chamber.
In the House, where lawmakers have been back home in their districts for more than a week, Ms. Pelosi’s plan for a voice vote is highly unusual for a measure of such consequence. But leaders settled on it so that lawmakers who wanted to speak could make their views known and those who were not physically present would not be required to record a vote.
But there is a risk: Technically, the House cannot legislate without the presence of a quorum, defined by the Constitution as a simple majority. (The House currently has 430 members; 216 are required for a quorum.) If even one member asserted that the House lacked a quorum and called for a recorded vote, the House would have to cease its business until 216 lawmakers arrived.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a liberal freshman Democrat from New York, warned on Wednesday that she might do so. Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, who plans to vote no on the bill, has also hinted that he might try to slow down its passage, prompting a warning from Representative Dean Phillips, Democrat of Minnesota.
“Dear @RepThomasMassie,” Mr. Phillips wrote on Twitter on Thursday evening. “If you intend to delay passage of the #coronavirus relief bill tomorrow morning, please advise your 428 colleagues RIGHT NOW so we can book flights and expend ~$200,000 in taxpayer money to counter your principled but terribly misguided stunt.”
Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader, has also told Democrats that a Republican may object. In either case, House leaders would reschedule the vote for Saturday, and lawmakers would have to return.
It was unclear on Thursday how many members would show up on Friday. On a private conference call, many House Democrats expressed an unwillingness to travel, participants said. Mr. Hoyer told the rank and file that they should try to come to Washington if they felt comfortable doing so. But in a memo to House members, the sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol physician urged caution.
“Members should use extreme care and deliberation when making the determination to travel to Washington, D.C.,” they wrote, adding that the physician’s office continued to recommend teleworking for all congressional offices.
“In all cases, members and staff must maintain six-foot social distance spacing as much as practicable when in the offices or the Capitol.”
Still, some decided to heed Mr. Hoyer’s call. Representative Joe Courtney, Democrat of Connecticut, said he knew of several colleagues who had decided to return to Washington for the vote, including one who found a flight that was to arrive at 3 a.m. Mr. Courtney and his wife, Audrey, decided to drive.
“The one thing she was insistent about was that she didn’t want me flying in a plane,” Mr. Courtney said.
So at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the couple left their home in Connecticut and got into their Ford Taurus with the congressman in the passenger seat, conducting business — including a conference call with one of the governors of the Federal Reserve — while his wife drove. The roads were empty, he said. They arrived in Washington six hours later.
“There’s definitely some nervousness about whether or not there’s going to be a quorum call,” Mr. Courtney said, “and if I was home and missed that, I would never forgive myself.”
Nicholas Fandos and Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.
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