WASHINGTON — Home Speaker Mike Johnson endured a decisive defeat Tuesday after he staged an unusually aggressive effort to squash a proposal for brand spanking new dad and mom in Congress to in a position to vote by proxy, reasonably than in particular person, as they take care of newborns.
9 of his personal Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting his plan, 206-222, in a dramatic vote.
It was a high-profile setback for the speaker, who hardly ever workouts the facility of his gavel in such a decided manner as he did attempting to forestall the bipartisan plan from two new moms – Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado.
“Very disenchanted,” Johnson mentioned after the vote. He canceled the remainder of the week’s session, sending lawmakers house. “We’ll regroup.”
The end result registered a large win for the mothers – and dads and others who supported them – who confirmed no indicators of dropping their marketing campaign as they pressure the Home to contemplate their proxy-voting plan, which has help from a majority of Home colleagues. Some 218 lawmakers backed their effort, signing on to a so-called discharge petition to pressure their proposal on the Home flooring for consideration.
“If we do not do the fitting factor now, it’s going to by no means be executed,” mentioned Luna, who gave beginning to her son in 2023.
Pettersen, with a burp material over her shoulder and 4-month-old son Sam in her arms, stood on the Home flooring and pleaded with colleagues to show again the GOP management’s effort to cease their decision.
“It’s unfathomable that in 2025 now we have not modernized Congress,” she mentioned. “We’re asking you to proceed to face with us.”
However Johnson, like GOP leaders earlier than him, rails towards proxy voting, which had been put in place for about two years throughout the COVID-19 lockdowns when Democrats had management of Congress, however has turn out to be an emblem for some Republicans as President Donald Trump pushes individuals again to work within the aftermath of the work-from-home pattern.
“Look, I am a father, I am pro-family,” the Republican speaker mentioned late final month. However “I consider it violates greater than two centuries of custom and establishment. And I believe that it opens a Pandora’s field, the place in the end, perhaps nobody is right here.”
It is the primary time in fashionable Home historical past that the management was taking the extraordinary step to attempt to halt a discharge petition when it is this far alongside. Subsequent steps are unsure.
Luna used the discharge petition course of as she and others grew pissed off that Home committees and social gathering leaders weren’t bringing the proxy-voting proposal ahead. As an alternative, she and others gathered the bulk signatures wanted, 218, to discharge it from limbo, and pressure it to the ground for motion.
At a guidelines committee listening to early Tuesday, the GOP-led panel tucked a provision into the routine guidelines course of that may have prohibited not simply this discharge petition however any others that attempt to push proxy voting ahead.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the highest Democrat on the panel, referred to as it a exceptional transfer from Republicans who usually marketing campaign because the social gathering aligned with household values.
“Given the prospect to truly help households, they flip their backs,” he mentioned. “A majority of the chamber is upending what the bulk on this chamber needs.”
Republicans countered that Luna, who led the discharge effort, didn’t undergo the common means of ready for his or her decision to be delivered to the ground via regular process. And so they criticized the momentary proxy voting coverage that Democrats put in place throughout the pandemic that they mentioned was abused by member absences.
“You need to come to work, you need to be current,” mentioned Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. throughout a committee debate.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the chair of the Guidelines Committee, decried what she referred to as the “laptop computer class” in America that does not have the luxurious of working by proxy. “Members of Congress merely want to indicate up for work,” she mentioned.
A couple of dozen ladies have given beginning whereas in Congress over time, and there are a lot of new fathers as properly. One, Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, had dashed again to Washington for votes in 2023 after his spouse had simply given beginning and their son was in an intensive care unit.
Many new and current dad and mom have been among the many eight different Republicans – all males, lots of them youthful lawmakers – who joined Luna to push forward previous the management.
Luna’s petition opens the door for the Home to vote on a decision that may permit new dad and mom serving in Congress to designate a proxy – one other member of Congress – to vote on their behalf for 12 weeks.
Republicans had barred proxy voting as soon as they took management of the Home from Democrats in 2023, after which Speaker McCarthy made a public precedence of re-opening the Home chamber. The brand new decision, which incorporates particular procedures on how the brand new mother or father would ship voting directions, would imply a change of their Home guidelines.
The decision from the moms permits proxy voting for lawmakers who’ve given beginning or pregnant lawmakers who’re unable to journey safely or have a critical medical situation. It additionally applies to lawmakers whose spouses are pregnant or giving beginning.
Below the decision, qualifying lawmakers might designate a proxy to forged a vote for them for as much as 12 weeks.
Luna, who’s among the many Home’s extra conservative lawmakers, made headlines for her steadfast help of Trump. However she resigned this week from the archconservative Home Freedom Caucus, saying she might now not be a part of the group if members “dealer backroom offers” towards its values.
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