Luna and Johnson Prepare for House Floor Clash Over Proxy Voting for New Parents

April 3, 2025 TruthUSA

The initiative to permit new-parent members of Congress to cast their votes remotely for 12 weeks has created a rift among Republicans.

WASHINGTON—Next week, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will face off on the House floor over Luna’s campaign for proxy voting rights for Congress members who are new parents.

A resolution, originally proposed by Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.)—who welcomed a son in January—is expected to be voted on. This resolution would enable new parents in Congress to vote remotely instead of being required to attend the Capitol in person for up to 12 weeks, provided they inform the House clerk of their proxy votes.

Luna, who became a mother during her inaugural year in Congress, has taken the lead in advocating for this cause by initiating a discharge petition—a parliamentary move aimed at forcing a vote on this matter on the House floor—despite Johnson’s resistance to the proposal.

Supporting Luna’s petition are 206 Democrats and 12 Republicans, which is just enough to surpass the 218-vote threshold necessary to enforce a floor vote.

On April 1, Johnson and House Republican leaders attempted to derail the vote through a parliamentary maneuver intended to prevent the petition from reaching the floor. Specifically, they called for a vote on an unrelated rule concerning an election integrity bill, which would also table further discussion on Luna’s petition.

Their effort failed to garner enough support from the House, as nine Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the motion, thereby allowing Luna’s petition to advance while simultaneously blocking the election integrity bill from being presented.

Luna criticized the maneuver, contending in a post on the social media platform X that it constituted “playing political games.”

“Republicans have had both the majority and the opportunity to advance legislation concerning election integrity and rogue judges for months,” Luna remarked. “However, at the last minute, leadership opted to link my discharge petition to a rules package that would unfairly brand me and my supporters as anti-election integrity.”

The schism among Republicans regarding Luna’s initiative also compelled her to resign from the House Freedom Caucus, in which she had served since beginning her term in 2023.

Leadership has argued that Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution mandates in-person voting to establish a quorum. An underlying factor may also be the narrow majority in the House, where Republicans can afford only three defections on any party-line vote.

Leadership has hinted to reporters that they are contemplating another strategy to obstruct the discharge petition vote, though its likelihood of success remains uncertain.

Proponents of the resolution argue that it is crucial to provide necessary accommodations for members caring for newborns.

“Congress offers no accommodations for new parents, so while I’m recuperating and caring for my newborn during this vital period, it is profoundly unjust that my constituents will not have a voice in Congress until I can physically return to Washington,” Pettersen, who sponsored the resolution, declared in a statement.

“No member should have to choose between caring for their newborn and serving their constituents.”

Petersen appeared on the House floor with her baby on April 1, just before the procedural vote aimed at halting the resolution from being presented.

She also participated in a vote less than a month after her son’s birth, opposing the House GOP budget resolution intended to facilitate a process for advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“No parent should have to choose between nurturing their child, or recuperating from childbirth, and meeting their responsibilities in Congress to represent their constituents,” Luna stated in a statement.

Luna has characterized the resolution as “pro-family.”

Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), a supporter of the resolution, mentioned in a statement that she had “froze [her] eggs and postponed starting a family partly because of the demands of this job and the continuous travel.” This was back in 2021 when she was a freshman member of Congress.

In a detailed social media post on April 2, Johnson expressed understanding for those balancing family commitments with serving in Congress. However, he affirmed that the Constitution does not permit proxy voting.

“The procedural vote yesterday was our attempt to promote President Trump’s critical legislative agenda while thwarting a discharge petition that would permit proxy voting and create a risky precedent for the institution,” he articulated.

“Allowing proxy voting for one category of Members would set a precedent for many others, ultimately leading to remote voting that could undermine the function of our deliberative body and lessen the vital role of the legislative branch.”

Proxy voting also sparked controversy between 2020 and 2023 when House members were allowed to vote remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to reports of potential abuses of the privilege by members.

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