WASHINGTON — A band of Republican lawmakers sank an effort Tuesday by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to kill a plan to allow remote voting for lawmakers who become new parents, a bitter dispute that brought the House floor to a halt.
A procedural rule vote to advance the House GOP’s package of bills for the week failed 206-222, with nine Republicans bucking Johnson and voting with all 213 Democrats. The failed vote means that, for now, those pieces of legislation cannot move forward for final votes.
"Today is a pretty historical day for the entire conference," said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who has led the proxy-voting push and clashed with Johnson over the issue.
"It's showing that the body has decided that parents deserve a voice in Washington," she said, "and also to the importance of female members having a vote in Washington, D.C."
Shortly after the vote, congressional leaders said they were sending lawmakers home for the week and would bring them back Monday.
"Let me just make clear, that rule being brought down means that we can't have further action on the floor this week," Johnson told reporters as he left the chamber.
Luna, who gave birth to her first child in 2023, had planned to force a floor vote this week on a resolution that would allow new mothers and fathers in the House to be able to vote remotely, through proxies, for up to 12 weeks.
But the effort has been fiercely opposed by Johnson and his leadership team, as well as members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, of which Luna had been a member until recently. Opponents called the proposal “unconstitutional” and warned it would lead to a slippery slope where others would request to vote by proxy.
To stop Luna, Johnson’s team inserted language in a rules package to kill the proxy-voting push by essentially blocking any discharge petition, a tool that allows any member to circumvent leadership of the majority party and bring legislation directly to the floor for a vote after having collected 218 signatures.
Luna had collected the 218 signatures, including those of 11 Republicans, needed to force a vote on the proxy resolution. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., who gave birth in January and brought her baby to the floor Tuesday, was the lead author of the bill and has been working closely with Luna.
"Speaker Johnson pulled out all the stops, and people continue to stand with us," Pettersen said after the vote, holding her baby and standing next to Luna. "We're changing the way that Congress works, making sure that moms and parents have a voice, and I'm just so proud to be a part of this.
Asked what her message to the speaker is, Pettersen replied: "We said, 'Don't f--- with moms.'"
Shortly before the rule vote Tuesday, Luna took to the floor and officially made a motion to formalize the discharge petition, which would bring the proposal to the floor within two legislative days. But because leadership adjourned the House until Monday, the vote won't be held until at least next week.
In addition to Luna, the other Republicans who voted down the rule are: Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler, both of New York; Tim Burchett, of Tennessee; Greg Steube, of Florida; Jeff Van Drew, of New Jersey; Kevin Kiley, of California; Max Miller, of Ohio; and Ryan Mackenzie, of Pennsylvania.
"It's the right thing to do," Burchett told NBC News.
The remote vote issue has deeply divided the GOP conference when the White House and Republicans are trying to press forward on their sweeping legislative agenda.
The fight can be traced to the Covid-19 pandemic, when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., allowed proxy voting in the name of public safety. But Republicans railed against the move at the time, arguing that lawmakers' chief responsibility is to show up and vote.
Proponents of proxy voting for new parents said it is needed to attract young people, including those with children, to run for public office.
"Congress would look a lot different if we had more moms here in Congress," Pettersen said. "We're working to address the barriers that we face to serving."
