Idaho's senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives will be gone from the halls of Congress until January, according to a staff member.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, notified the clerk of the House in a letter Nov. 29 that he would be absent for votes and congressional proceedings. He tapped fellow Idaho Republican Rep. Russ Fulcher as his proxy.

"The Congressman had surgery and is home recovering," Julia Horman, Simpson's press secretary and legislative assistant, said in an email Thursday to the Idaho Capital Sun. "He is doing great and will back in D.C. fully ready to vote on January 3 for start of the new Congress."

Many House members are participating in Congress through proxy voting this fall and winter, under a policy that outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi implemented for the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of House members have voted through proxies under the policy, as States Newsroom reported last year.

Simpson's district includes the eastern and southern half of the state.