WASHINGTON — After tearing his achilles tendon in 2024 at a pickleball fundraiser, doctors told Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Latta he would need emergency surgery. Instead, he asked for a scooter, still making it to House votes later that evening.

Over his almost two decades in Congress, Latta is one of the few House members who maintains a near-perfect attendance record, going several years in a row without missing a vote on the floor — including 2025.

“That’s your job. Your job is to be there to represent your district, to do your job in committee, and to make sure you vote,” he said.

Latta hasn’t skipped a vote since 2020, and his streak continues as his party deals with slim margins. His strategy is simple, he said: “The majority leader sets the calendar, and I live by the calendar.”

Not everyone feels the same way. House Republicans have been dealing with some tough math this month, after Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned and Doug LaMalfa unexpectedly died. Thanks to multiple absences, Speaker Mike Johnson briefly saw his majority become anything but on Jan. 12, when more Democrats than Republicans ended up at votes that evening.

While that was just a low-stakes vote series on a fly-in day, Latta shows up for those, too.

“It’s like I always say about the first night back. What time do we vote? 6:30. What time are first votes? 6:30. What time do you need to be here? 6:30. Not 7 o’clock. It’s 6:30,” he said. “I believe in punctuality.”

Calling Latta’s record the “gold standard,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said in a statement, “Bob is a team player and shows up ready to work for the people of his district. That’s really what it’s all about.”

Latta said he’s been fortunate, acknowledging that tragedies can keep members away from Washington. Until recently, Rep. Steve Womack was the one on an attendance hot streak, with more than 8,800 consecutive votes. But the Arkansas Republican missed some starting in November to be with his wife, who died over the weekend.

But barring tragic circumstances like that, Johnson has been handing out some advice to his members: “No adventure sports, no risk-taking, take your vitamins,” as the speaker put it last week.

After a car crash left him hospitalized, Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Baird returned to the Capitol to vote on Jan. 13 wearing a neck brace, with bruises still visible on his face. Latta said that makes his colleague a role model.

No vote too small

Attendance can be even harder to wrangle during an election year. Among the House members on both sides of the aisle who missed votes last week, for example, were Reps. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, who is running for Senate, and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who is running for governor.

No-shows and stragglers can get frustrating, Latta said — especially when it means votes last longer than planned.

“If you’re not there, then a lot of times because you’re not there, we stop action until we can get a sufficient body,” he said. “It frustrates 95 percent of us that we all say the same thing: ‘Whatever happened to 15 minutes?’”

The first vote of a House vote series is usually scheduled for 15 minutes, but often gets held open as members make their way back to the chamber. Subsequent votes are often either five or two minutes, but those can also run long as members wander in and out of their cloakrooms or the Speaker’s Lobby. Shouts of “one more” can be heard as tardy lawmakers run on to the floor.

Latta said when he served in the Ohio State Legislature, members voted at their desks, speeding up the process significantly. But in the House, they use voting cards at machines scattered throughout the chamber, often walking around and talking in the process.

One thing Latta thinks could help boost attendance is reevaluating the House calendar. While the modernization select committee in the 117th Congress floated proposals to change it, none were adopted. The way Latta sees it, reducing the amount of recess throughout the year and ending Congress’ business earlier in December would help.

His attendance record isn’t without cost — Latta said he has missed plenty of family events to maintain it. In 2011, he and his wife, Marcia, had planned a trip to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. When last-minute House votes got added to the calendar, they decided to cancel the trip, rescheduling it for a later date.

And when one of his daughters got married in 2022, he said she told her then-fiancé that the wedding needed to be scheduled with Latta’s commitments in mind.

His message to colleagues who don’t show up? It’s simple, Latta said. “You took an oath to be here — and you’ve got to be here.”

_____

©2026 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.