Authors: Carmen Cox
Stephen Morton/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Rep. Michele Bachmann on Wednesday snapped her streak of consecutive votes missed at 88, ending a run that dated back to Aug. 1.
Bachmann, R-Minn., had missed many of the votes while campaigning for president and participating in presidential debates over the past eight weeks.
On Wednesday, she voted six times, including casting votes in favor of three free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
“The free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, negotiated more than four years ago, received a long-awaited stamp of approval today by Congress. These agreements will create hundreds of thousands of American jobs and spur economic growth across a wide span of industries, without cost to taxpayers,” Bachmann wrote in a statement following the votes.
Earlier this week, Bachmann attributed her absence to campaigning in New Hampshire, where she hadn’t focused much of her campaign’s attention, to her responsibilities as a representative in Congress -- even though she had not voted since Aug. 1, when she opposed the Budget Control Act to increase the debt limit.
“You didn’t see me a lot here in New Hampshire and I’ll tell you why: It’s because my first duty was to go back to Washington, D.C.,” Bachmann said.
But while Bachmann returned to Washington for the president’s jobs address to a joint session of Congress in early September, she did not vote that day.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who is also seeking the GOP nomination and has missed a number of votes since the August recess, skipped Wednesday’s votes, although he returned to Washington last month to vote for three days.
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
