WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson endured a decisive defeat Tuesday after he staged an unusually aggressive effort to squash a proposal for new parents in Congress to able to vote by proxy, rather than in person, as they care for newborns.
Nine of his own Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting his plan, 206-222, in a dramatic vote.
It was a high-profile setback for the speaker, who rarely exercises the power of his gavel in such a determined way as he did trying to prevent the bipartisan plan from two new mothers — Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado.
“Very disappointed,” Johnson said after the vote. He canceled the rest of the week's session, sending lawmakers home. “We'll regroup.”
The outcome registered a sizable win for the moms — and dads and others who supported them — who showed no signs of dropping their campaign as they force the House to consider their proxy-voting plan, which has support from a majority of House colleagues. Some 218 lawmakers backed their effort, signing on to a so-called discharge petition to force their proposal on the House floor for consideration.
"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, with a burp cloth over her shoulder and 4-month-old son Sam in her arms, 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.”
But Johnson, like GOP leaders before him, rails against proxy voting, which had been put in place for about two years during the COVID-19 lockdowns when Democrats had control of Congress, but has become a symbol for some Republicans as President Donald Trump pushes people back to work in the aftermath of the work-from-home trend.
“Look, I’m a father, I’m pro-family," the Republican speaker said late last month. But "I believe it violates more than two centuries of tradition and institution. And I think that it opens a Pandora’s box, where ultimately, maybe no one is here.”
It’s the first time in modern House history that the leadership was taking the extraordinary step to try to halt a discharge petition when it’s this far along. Next steps are uncertain.
Luna used the discharge petition process as she and others grew frustrated that House committees and party leaders were not bringing the proxy-voting proposal forward. Instead, she and others gathered the majority signatures needed, 218, to discharge it from limbo, and force it to the floor for action.
At a rules committee hearing early Tuesday, the GOP-led panel tucked a provision into the routine rules process that would have prohibited not just this discharge petition but any others that try to push proxy voting forward.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the panel, called it a remarkable move from Republicans who often campaign as the party aligned with family values.
“Given the chance to actually support families, they turn their backs,” he said. "A majority of the chamber is upending what the majority in this chamber wants."
Republicans countered that Luna, who led the discharge effort, did not go through the regular process of waiting for their resolution to be brought to the floor through normal procedure. And they criticized the temporary proxy voting policy that Democrats put in place during the pandemic that they said was abused by member absences.
“You have to come to work, you have to be present,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. during a committee debate.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the chair of the Rules Committee, decried what she called the “laptop class” in America that doesn’t have the luxury of working by proxy. “Members of Congress simply need to show up for work,” she said.
About a dozen women have given birth while in Congress over the years, and there are many new fathers as well. One, Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, had dashed back to Washington for votes in 2023 after his wife had just given birth and their son was in an intensive care unit.
Many new and existing parents were among the eight other Republicans — all men, many of them younger lawmakers — who joined Luna to push ahead past the leadership.
Luna’s petition opens the door for the House to vote on a resolution that would allow new parents serving in Congress to designate a proxy — another member of Congress — to vote on their behalf for 12 weeks.
Republicans had barred proxy voting once they took control of the House from Democrats in 2023, and then Speaker McCarthy made a public priority of re-opening the House chamber. The new resolution, which includes specific procedures on how the new parent would deliver voting instructions, would mean a change in their House rules.
The resolution from the mothers allows proxy voting for lawmakers who have given birth or pregnant lawmakers who are unable to travel safely or have a serious medical condition. It also applies to lawmakers whose spouses are pregnant or giving birth.
Under the resolution, qualifying lawmakers may designate a proxy to cast a vote for them for up to 12 weeks.
Luna, who is among the House's more conservative lawmakers, made headlines for her steadfast support of Trump. But she resigned this week from the archconservative House Freedom Caucus, saying she could no longer be part of the group if members “broker backroom deals” against its values.
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Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.
Lisa Mascaro And Leah Askarinam, The Associated Press
