{"id":143,"date":"2026-06-02T21:44:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=143"},"modified":"2026-06-02T21:44:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:44:41","slug":"he-hasnt-been-seen-in-months-the-congressional-record-disagrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"He hasn\u2019t been seen in months. The Congressional Record disagrees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It\u2019s been nearly three months since he last cast a vote on the House floor, but Rep. Thomas H. Kean Jr. has been keeping busy \u2014 or at least trying to look like he is.<\/p>\n

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In the New Jersey Republican\u2019s absence, five speeches under his name have appeared in the Congressional Record.<\/p>\n

Staff in congressional offices continue to work even when their bosses don\u2019t, which is nothing new. But Kean\u2019s disappearance has raised long-overdue questions about transparency on the Hill, some experts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appearance of impropriety is just as bad as the real thing because it casts a cloud on the individual or the institution, and Americans already have a pretty dismal view of Congress and of government broadly,\u201d said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of government affairs at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the 89 days since he last voted, Kean has also disclosed stock trades and introduced legislation. And in the official written record of Congress\u2019 proceedings, his speeches have covered a range of topics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He celebrated the of a constituent, honored the and recognized a century of \u201c\u201d in the borough of Watchung, among other things.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not uncommon for members to file a speech to be published in the Congressional Record on a day they did not actually speak on the House floor. But Kean\u2019s frequent submissions while he\u2019s been away from Washington have raised eyebrows. According to guidance from the House Republican Cloakroom, material for the Congressional Record \u201cmust bear the original signature of the submitting member,\u201d and the cloakroom \u201ccannot accept faxed or electronic copies\u201d of what are known as \u201cextensions of remarks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kean\u2019s office did not provide answers to emailed questions about how he submitted his Congressional Record speeches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two-term lawmaker, who faces a competitive reelection fight in the fall, has remained mysteriously out of public view even as he faces mounting pressure to disclose details of the \u201cpersonal medical issue\u201d that has kept him away from the Capitol. \u201cI will be back to the job I love very soon,\u201d he said in an April statement posted on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a core problem,\u201d Hedtler-Gaudette said. \u201cA lack of candor and transparency around his situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Less representation, more problems<\/h2>\n

When the House is in session but a lawmaker is out sick or campaigning, constituents lose out on a primary function of their elected official \u2014 casting votes on the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe district he\u2019s supposed to be representing is not being represented,\u201d Hedtler-Gaudette said.<\/p>\n

But staff are the backbone of Congress and routinely keep offices up and running, answering constituents and handling day-to-day affairs. They have a number of ways to make their bosses look busy, from issuing press releases to posting on social media and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That only becomes a problem when the public can\u2019t be sure whether their representative is involved in key decisions at all, some observers say. Prolonged absences from Washington \u2014 especially without full transparency \u2014\u00a0shouldn\u2019t be seen as business as usual, they warn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kean last voted on the House floor on March 5. Since then, in addition to submitting speeches for the record, he has introduced three pieces of legislation and signed on as a co-sponsor to several others.<\/p>\n

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Casey Burgat, an associate professor at George Washington University, said Kean\u2019s behavior draws more attention to his absence, ultimately leading to more questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can do this, then why aren\u2019t you there doing the other significant portion of your job, which is voting?\u201d he said. \u201cAt the same time, I get what the office is trying to do. \u2026 They have policy ideas, they can submit these things without a member present and voting, so maybe it\u2019s their way of showing legislative representation on important issues without the member actually being there to vote.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time a member has vanished from Washington with little to no explanation. In 2024, for example, the Dallas Express reported that former Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger had been quietly living in an assisted living facility while still serving as a sitting member of Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Granger did not introduce bills in her absence, she continued to submit remarks appearing in the Congressional Record like Kean has, including speeches recognizing long-serving staffers on the House Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n

In other cases, members are chronically absent from Washington but remain visible on the campaign trail. Former Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, for one, submitted a speech for the record on Sept. 9, 2025, despite missing votes that day, part of a larger string of no-shows as she campaigned for governor of New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u2018He should be there doing his job\u2019<\/h2>\n

In a time of tight margins in the House, every missing GOP voice can be a headache for Speaker Mike Johnson, which has only called more attention to the topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, he should be there doing his job unless he\u2019s got a medical thing that\u2019s preventing him, and if you\u2019ve got a medical thing that\u2019s preventing him from doing a job, then he should probably not be in the job anymore,\u201d Hedtler-Gaudette said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some members in recent years stayed in their jobs while dealing with medical issues keeping them away from Washington but ultimately died in office, leaving their seats vacant for months until a successor was elected. That was the case for former Rep. Ra\u00fal Grijalva, D-Ariz., who missed dozens of votes in 2025 while battling lung cancer.<\/p>\n

While leaders in Congress can cajole or encourage their members to show up in D.C., they can\u2019t compel them. And other ideas are scarce.<\/p>\n

At least one member of Congress, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., has called for ethics guidelines around any permanent \u201ccognitive impairment\u201d stopping colleagues from doing their jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others want to see the House revive options for proxy voting, which has been controversial since the pandemic. An effort to allow new parents to vote by proxy as they spent time with their newborns, led by Reps. Britney Pettersen, D-Colo., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., fizzled out last year as Johnson reinstated a process known as \u201cvote pairing\u201d instead \u2014 essentially cancelling out the missed votes of absent members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The way Burgat sees it, \u201cmembers are humans too, and they\u2019re likely going to \u2026 need extended breaks for an infinite number of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t legislate all of that away,\u201d he said. \u201cCan you get close with maybe required check-ins or maximum time away? But ultimately, we have very few mechanisms to recall members of Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cReally, the only ones we have are elections themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been nearly three months since he last cast a vote on the House floor, but Rep. Thomas H. Kean Jr. has been keeping busy \u2014 or at least trying to look like he is. In the New Jersey Republican\u2019s absence, five speeches under his name have appeared in the Congressional Record. Staff in congressional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"yoast_head":"\nHe hasn\u2019t been seen in months. 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