House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R., La.) effort to defeat a proxy voting proposal for representatives who are new parents failed on Tuesday, when nine House Republicans joined Democrats in voting down a procedural measure that would have tabled a floor vote on the measure sometime this week.
Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R., Fla.) — a new mother — successfully obtained a discharge petition for consideration of the rule change, which would allow new parents in Congress to vote remotely for up to six weeks. The House Rules Committee tried to scuttle that upcoming vote by tucking language into a rules package that would table floor consideration of the measure, but the parliamentary maneuver failed on Tuesday afternoon, when only 206 lawmakers voted in favor and 222 voted against.
Luna’s proposal has garnered significant media attention in recent weeks as new mothers in Congress have lobbied their colleagues to support the measure. Representative Brittany Pettersen (D., Colo.), who gave birth earlier this year, has also become a vocal supporter of the rule change.
Most Republicans are staunchly opposed to the proposal, with many calling it unconstitutional. Representatives Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), Morgan Griffith (R., Va.), and Chip Roy (R., Texas) have been vocal opponents of the proposal for proxy voting for new parents, stressing the importance of showing up in person for the job and the unintended potential consequences of allowing members of Congress to vote remotely. House Democrats instituted proxy voting during the pandemic, but House Republicans prohibited the practice two years later, when they flipped the chamber to GOP control.
On the House floor before the vote, Roy said that he has missed countless family engagements because of his congressional duties. “But you know what? I signed up for the job!” he said. “We’re supposed to be here.”
House GOP leadership’s failure to tank the proxy voting proposal is a major political hit to Johnson, who had projected confidence earlier in the day that the procedural vote would pass. Because today’s rules vote didn’t go as planned, leadership sent lawmakers home for the rest of the week.