Washington
CNN
—
GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has repeatedly tried to convince Speaker Mike Johnson that he — as a pro-family champion — should support her efforts to allow new mothers to vote absentee for six weeks while they are recovering from their birth.
He refused. She then turned to the Democrats.
The House Freedom Caucus member is now joining forces with a group of House Democrats, backed by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, on a measure that would give even more flexibility to new parents – a full 12 weeks for absentee voting for mothers and fathers alike.
She and her senior partner on the Democratic side, a very pregnant Rep. Brittany Pettersen, plan to force passage of the measure soon using a discharge petition, which is a highly unusual step for a lawmaker to take against his or her own leadership. And they believe it will pass, since only a handful of Republicans are expected to join Democrats in supporting them.
“I don’t think it’s fair for leaders, especially Republican leaders, who pride themselves on being pro-family, to be so anti-family,” Luna defiantly told CNN. “And really, this is a slap in the face to every single one of our constituents who sent us to Washington, D.C.”
This new push for remote voting, led by a conservative Republican, reflects a younger generation of members of Congress eager to modernize the institution — as well as the intense pressure on every member of the House to be physically present at a time when every vote counts. In a historically slim majority in the House, lawmakers who are unable to vote for a range of unavoidable reasons – including the birth of a child, chemotherapy treatment or the death of a spouse – may be the deciding factors in the success of a bill.
And it’s that same tight House calculus that allows individual members like Luna to oppose his own party’s leadership and work with Democrats.
Johnson told CNN in a brief interview that the practice of proxy voting, even for new moms unable to travel, is “unconstitutional.” And the speaker, who spent decades in the field of constitutional law before joining Congress, personally made that argument in a brief filed with the Supreme Court.
“It’s unfortunate. I have great sympathy and empathy for all our young female legislators of unborn age. It’s a real dilemma,” Johnson told CNN. “But I’m afraid that doesn’t fit the language of the Constitution and that’s the inescapable truth that we have.”
Luna, for her part, calls it a “cop-out response.”
A fight in the pandemic era
Proxy voting in Congress has been the subject of heated political and legal debates since its implementation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Republicans in the House of Representatives long opposed the practice and ended it after winning a majority in the 2022 elections.
A federal trial and appeals court in Washington, D.C., previously dismissed a Republican-backed lawsuit challenging the practice in the House. The United States Supreme Court declined to take up McCarthy’s case. Another lawsuit opposing proxy voting, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is currently before a federal appeals court.
Behind the scenes, Luna and other lawmakers — including Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, who has a two-month-old at home, and Democrats like Pettersen and fellow millennial Rep. Sara Jacobs of California — have attempted to work with Johnson and his team to craft language that could win support on Capitol Hill and withstand legal scrutiny. They changed the original language that Johnson said violated the Constitution, regarding establishing a “quorum” in the House.
When his appeal for GOP leadership failed, Luna decided to negotiate a compromise with Democrats, particularly with Pettersen, who is expecting her second child in February. The latest measure would allow new fathers and mothers to vote absentee for 12 weeks, unlike Luna’s original bill, which would have offered only six weeks of proxy voting and only to pregnant mothers. (These changes cost the GOP some votes: Several Republicans said privately that they would no longer support the measure if it also included fathers, according to a person familiar with the discussions.)
Republicans privately acknowledge that it is in their interest to allow members some flexibility given the House’s calculations. Two more House Republican men are expected to become fathers later this year.
But many are unwilling to support a recall petition that goes against their own leaders. Rep. Blake Moore, who sits at Johnson’s leadership table, missed the birth of one of his children because of his work in the House, but said he has no plans to support the petition for release.
“I’ve talked to both of these ladies and their hearts are in the right place,” Moore told CNN, referring to Luna and Pettersen.
The push for proxy voting is a notable change for Luna, a member of the Freedom Caucus who initially opposed the idea. But she changed her mind after her own difficult birth, which made her trip to Washington difficult.
Luna has no plans to stop at just proxy voting for new parents. The Florida Republican said she would work with another member, Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is leading a campaign to give lawmakers limited access to remote voting in a real emergency, if the Republican Party leaders approve their leave.
Van Drew said it was a necessary step for Congress after seeing some of his colleagues forced to choose between attending a funeral or being with a sick family member or missing a big vote.
“We have a tiny, unprecedented majority,” Van Drew told CNN. While emphasizing that it is “absolutely our duty and our job” to vote in person, he acknowledged that lawmakers sometimes face “extreme circumstances.”
But Van Drew knows there is strong resistance from some members of his caucus, recalling a conversation with a fellow Republican who declined to support the proposal.
“I asked, ‘What would you do if your father was in a hospital bed and he was going to pass away and you had a critical vote for the country?’ “, Van Drew said, recalling his conversation with the deputy. “He looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘My dad would understand that I should vote.’
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is among those Republicans adamantly opposed to proxy voting — whether a member is recovering from birth or illness. He said it was not only unconstitutional, but also “not right.”
“I have to take into account that I am an absent father to my 13- and 15-year-old children,” Roy said. “It’s a choice. And I have to decide if it’s worth the choice. I have to tell you, most of the time I’m not sure that’s really the case.
Pettersen now faces difficult choices of her own.
Stuck at work from her district office in Lakewood, Colo., for the next few weeks, Pettersen wants new parents to be able to vote remotely when they, like her, cannot travel to the Capitol. A few weeks before her due date, the Democrat can no longer travel by plane. And with upcoming votes expected on Trump’s agenda, raising the US debt ceiling and increasing government spending, it is unclear when she will be able to return.
“It’s incredibly unfair that I can’t physically travel to Washington to have my vote counted. It’s not safe for me or my baby,” Pettersen told CNN. She added that her own decision to stay in Colorado was difficult — she even considered moving her family to Washington on short notice for birth of her baby, but ultimately decided to stay home near her current doctor and the rest of her family.
She said it’s also important for Congress to “evolve” with the times, where women make up about 28 percent of the House. (Luna was only the 12th woman to give birth in Congress, and Pettersen will be the 13th.)
Jacobs, who decided to freeze her eggs because of his work in the House, put it this way: “This is an institution designed for and by old white men. »
Supporters aim to bring together about 10 Republicans on the discharge petition to ensure it has a buffer for passage.
They will be able to officially submit a request for release around mid-March, i.e. 30 legislative days from the introduction of their initial measure. And Luna is confident.
“I love when people tell me I can’t do something because I turn around and do it,” she said.