Resolution For Congressional Proxy Voting For New Parents Dies

After standing up against her party’s leadership in an effort to make governance more accessible to new parents, Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, along with eight fellow dissenting Republicans, have backed down their efforts to change House rules to allow proxy voting for new parents.

On April 1, House Democrats aided by nine Republicans brought business as usual to a week-long halt after facing off against the Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Two moms from opposite sides of the aisle — Luna and Brittany Pettersen (D, Colorado) — led the charge to allow new parents to vote by proxy for 12 weeks after the birth of a child. Despite Johnson’s efforts to override bringing the resolution to a vote, the numbers were not on his side and the factions came to an impasse.

“Don’t f*ck with moms,” Pettersen said on the steps of the House afterwards. “Speaker Johnson pulled out all the stops and people continued to stand with us. We’re changing the way that Congress works, making sure that moms and parents have a voice.”

“Let me just make this clear, that rule being brought down means that we can't have any further action on the floor this week,” Johnson, who has decried proxy voting as “unconstitutional,” told reporters.

Days later, President Trump (briefly) signaled his support for proxy voting.

“I don’t know why it’s controversial,” he told reporters. “If you’re having a baby, I think you should be able to call in and vote. I’m in favor of that.”

But on April 7, The New York Times reports that Luna and the eight GOP holdouts on the issue have capitulated to Johnson’s persuasions, based on Johnson’s permission of “vote pairing.”

Vote pairing is nothing new in Congress — it has been in use for over a century. Essentially, vote pairing is a voluntary and informal arrangement in which lawmakers on opposite sides of an issue agree that one will abstain from a vote if the other cannot attend the vote. Essentially, this means neither will affect the outcome as one person’s vote would have cancelled out the others had both been present. Vote pairing was famously used in the 2018 confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when Senator Steve Daines — a yes vote — could not be in Washington on account of his daughter’s wedding. Senator Lisa Murkowski agreed to vote “present” rather than “nay” to off-set his absence.

This move, while it could potentially aid new parents in some situations, does nothing to guarantee access for congress members on maternity or medical leave to represent their constituents by vote. Vote pairing is voluntary and therefore not guaranteed. As such, ideological opponents would be unlikely to pair with an absent member if it were likely to change the outcome of a particular vote.

Luna nevertheless appear to take a victory lap for the move on social media, writing on Facebook,

“Thanks to POTUS and his support of new moms being able to vote when recovering from child brith [sic] as well as those who worked hard to get these changes done. If we truly want a pro-family Congress, these are the changes that need to happen.”

While Pettersen continued to express gratitude for Luna’s erstwhile efforts, she nevertheless was disappointed in the outcome of this fight.

“The reality is — this outcome does not address the barriers we’ve fought so hard to overcome,” she posted to Twitter. “Instead of letting us vote, [Johnson] has gone to historic lengths to kill our resolution and make sure the large majority of his Members don’t have a voice. Let’s be clear: these changes are not a win for us and Speaker Johnson has turned his back on moms and dads in congress and working families.”