Republican congressional leaders suffered an embarrassing defeat Tuesday when they failed to kill a bipartisan effort to allow remote voting by proxy for new parents in Congress.
Nine GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in defeating a legislative sleight of hand that would have blocked the parental voting measure that is vocally supported by arch-conservative new mom Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) and her liberal colleague Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colorado).
The Republican rebels included Westchester County Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York), whose wife recently had their first baby, and Rep. Nick LaLota (R-New York), a father of three who represents the East End of Long Island.
The two new moms and their allies were pushing for a separate vote on the parental voting measure as soon as possible, although it was unclear when that might happen.
“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 held her four-month-old son, Sam, in her arms as she 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.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who believes proxy voting is unconstitutional, adjourned the entire House for the rest of the week, a move that will likely allow him to twist arms to try to defeat the voting effort.
More than 218 House lawmakers have signed onto an effort to force a vote on the bill that would allow new parents to vote remotely for 12 weeks immediately before and after they or their spouse give birth.
To many parents and younger lawmakers it seems like a commonsense solution to a modern problem for lawmakers who may live thousands of miles from their workplace in Washington D.C.
But many conservative Republicans fiercely oppose the measure because it reminds them of the mitigation measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, when Democrats led by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed remote voting.
“It violates more than two centuries of tradition and institution,” Johnson said. “And I think that it opens a Pandora’s box, where ultimately, maybe no one is here.”
Supporters of the remote voting bill note that the Supreme Court declined to hear a conservative challenge to the practice during the pandemic, casting doubt on Johnson’s claim.
The GOP leadership, led by Johnson, tried to block consideration of the bill by adding a provision to table it and bar it from being reconsidered for two years into an unrelated bill mandating proof of citizenship to register to vote.
That bill, which had been expected to pass with perhaps unanimous Republican backing, was passed by the rules committee and was expected to win approval on the House floor.
But Luna and eight other Republicans voted against the separate bill that would have blocked the voting measure.
Under House rules, the body should have to consider the new parent proxy voting measure when lawmakers return next week. But Johnson may try some other maneuver to block a vote.