Speaker Johnson suffers a defeat in his push to block parents in the
U.S. House from proxy voting
[April 02, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO and LEAH ASKARINAM
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson endured a decisive defeat
Tuesday after he staged an unusually aggressive effort to squash a
proposal for new parents in Congress to able to vote by proxy, rather
than in person, as they care for newborns.
Nine of his own Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting his plan,
206-222, in a dramatic vote.
It was a high-profile setback for the speaker, who rarely exercises the
power of his gavel in such a determined way as he did trying to prevent
the bipartisan plan from two new mothers — Republican Rep. Anna Paulina
Luna of Florida and Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado.
“Very disappointed,” Johnson said after the vote. He canceled the rest
of the week's session, sending lawmakers home. “We'll regroup.”
The outcome registered a sizable win for the moms — and dads and others
who supported them — who showed no signs of dropping their campaign as
they force the House to consider their proxy-voting plan, which has
support from a majority of House colleagues. Some 218 lawmakers backed
their effort, signing on to a so-called discharge petition to force
their proposal on the House floor for consideration.
"If we don't do the right thing now, it'll never be done," said Luna,
who gave birth to her son in 2023.
Pettersen, with a burp cloth over her shoulder and 4-month-old son Sam
in her arms, stood on the House floor and pleaded with colleagues to
turn back the GOP leadership's effort to stop their resolution.
“It is unfathomable that in 2025 we have not modernized Congress,” she
said. “We're asking you to continue to stand with us.”
But Johnson, like GOP leaders before him, rails against proxy voting,
which had been put in place for about two years during the COVID-19
lockdowns when Democrats had control of Congress, but has become a
symbol for some Republicans as President Donald Trump pushes people back
to work in the aftermath of the work-from-home trend.
“Look, I’m a father, I’m pro-family," the Republican speaker said late
last month. But "I believe it violates more than two centuries of
tradition and institution. And I think that it opens a Pandora’s box,
where ultimately, maybe no one is here.”
It’s the first time in modern House history that the leadership was
taking the extraordinary step to try to halt a discharge petition when
it’s this far along. Next steps are uncertain.
Luna used the discharge petition process as she and others grew
frustrated that House committees and party leaders were not bringing the
proxy-voting proposal forward. Instead, she and others gathered the
majority signatures needed, 218, to discharge it from limbo, and force
it to the floor for action.
At a rules committee hearing early Tuesday, the GOP-led panel tucked a
provision into the routine rules process that would have prohibited not
just this discharge petition but any others that try to push proxy
voting forward.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the panel,
called it a remarkable move from Republicans who often campaign as the
party aligned with family values.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., takes questions on tariffs
while meeting with reporters at a news conference, at the Capitol,
in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“Given the chance to actually support families, they turn their
backs,” he said. "A majority of the chamber is upending what the
majority in this chamber wants."
Republicans countered that Luna, who led the discharge effort, did
not go through the regular process of waiting for their resolution
to be brought to the floor through normal procedure. And they
criticized the temporary proxy voting policy that Democrats put in
place during the pandemic that they said was abused by member
absences.
“You have to come to work, you have to be present,” said Rep. Ralph
Norman, R-S.C. during a committee debate.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the chair of the Rules Committee,
decried what she called the “laptop class” in America that doesn’t
have the luxury of working by proxy. “Members of Congress simply
need to show up for work,” she said.
About a dozen women have given birth while in Congress over the
years, and there are many new fathers as well. One, Rep. Wesley
Hunt, R-Texas, had dashed back to Washington for votes in 2023 after
his wife had just given birth and their son was in an intensive care
unit.
Many new and existing parents were among the eight other Republicans
— all men, many of them younger lawmakers — who joined Luna to push
ahead past the leadership.
Luna’s petition opens the door for the House to vote on a resolution
that would allow new parents serving in Congress to designate a
proxy — another member of Congress — to vote on their behalf for 12
weeks.
Republicans had barred proxy voting once they took control of the
House from Democrats in 2023, and then Speaker McCarthy made a
public priority of re-opening the House chamber. The new resolution,
which includes specific procedures on how the new parent would
deliver voting instructions, would mean a change in their House
rules.
The resolution from the mothers allows proxy voting for lawmakers
who have given birth or pregnant lawmakers who are unable to travel
safely or have a serious medical condition. It also applies to
lawmakers whose spouses are pregnant or giving birth.
Under the resolution, qualifying lawmakers may designate a proxy to
cast a vote for them for up to 12 weeks.
Luna, who is among the House's more conservative lawmakers, made
headlines for her steadfast support of Trump. But she resigned this
week from the archconservative House Freedom Caucus, saying she
could no longer be part of the group if members “broker backroom
deals” against its values.
___
Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.
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