House GOP leaders scrubbed the floor schedule for the week after a small number of Republicans banded together with Democrats to safeguard a bipartisan initiative to allow proxy voting for new parents.
Nine Republicans joined with 213 Democrats to defeat a rule that provided for consideration of bills that were expected to get votes in the next couple of days, including legislation to stem the tide of nationwide injunctions and require voters prove their United States citizenship for federal elections.
What drove the GOP rebellion was language included in the rule that sought to block a discharge petition from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL). The petition had garnered enough signatures — 218 in total — to force leadership to act within two legislative days on a resolution to allow for parental remote voting by proxy.
“At the last minute, leadership chose to tie my discharge petition to a rules package that would permanently paint me and the members supporting it as being anti-election integrity,” said Luna, who reportedly missed 137 votes while recovering from complications associated with her giving birth to a son in 2023.
“Leadership should stop playing political games with President Trump’s agenda,” she added on X. “They can bring any of the legislation to the floor. Why would they send Congress home? They’re not serious about anything they are messaging on. I’m not in the business of lying about what is happening in DC.”
Republican opponents have raised constitutional objections to proxy voting, which took hold several years ago under Democrat leadership during the COVID pandemic, and warned that conceding exceptions for new parents would lead to more allowances.
“Proxy voting is unconstitutional and will be abused and expanded. Show up for work, or don’t run for Congress,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said in a post on X.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters he was “disappointed” by the outcome of the rule vote and noted that he wanted to “make clear” that it meant “we can’t have any further action on the floor this week.”
However, multiple reporters pointed out that leadership could vote on the election integrity bill because it was approved in January or “go back to rules” as the week was less than half-way over.
On Monday, Luna announced that she was leaving the House Freedom Caucus, pinning the decision on how some of the conservative group’s members sought to defeat her discharge petition.
Rep. Brittany Petterson (D-CO), who sponsored the proxy voting bill, said on the House floor on Tuesday while holding her newborn baby: “It is unfathomable that in 2025, we have not modernized Congress to address these very unique challenges that members face.”
