Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) says she and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are discussing possible paths out of the clash over proxy voting for new parents that has brought the House to a halt, threatening to derail President Trump’s legislative agenda at a critical time.
Luna said on X that Johnson called her after Trump weighed in on the matter on Thursday, saying that he liked the idea of proxy voting for new moms.
“We discussed limiting the vote to just new moms who cannot physically travel in event of emergency etc. This is smart,” Luna said in the post.
Johnson, meanwhile, initially reiterated his opposition to proxy voting for new parents — which he argues is unconstitutional and would lead to a slippery slope of remote voting for other reasons — in wake of Trump’s comments, sharing a piece from the conservative Washington Examiner that said proxy voting for moms “endangers the entire GOP agenda.” Johnson added: “Yep.”
But later on Thursday, the Speaker deleted that post.
Even if Johnson and Luna can reach an agreement, the matter is not as simple as Johnson relenting to Luna.
Other Republicans have threatened to vote against procedural rules teeing up other priorities until Luna’s proxy voting push is squashed, according to Johnson. The Speaker on Wednesday said he was looking at other ways to support new moms in the Capitol.
The matter is such a sticky situation that lawmakers have brought Trump into the arcane disputes over proxy voting, constitutionality and procedural rules — with Luna telling NewsNation on Wednesday that she spoke to the president about the matter.
Trump then told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday that he did not know why the issue was controversial.
“I’m gonna let the Speaker make the decision, but I like the idea of being able to — if you’re having a baby, I think you should be able to call in and vote. I’m in favor of that,” Trump said.
Johnson has been scrambling to break an impasse over the push for proxy voting, after Luna led a discharge petition with more than 200 Democrats and 11 other Republicans to force a vote on Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s (D-Colo.) resolution to allow members who give birth or lawmakers whose spouses give birth to have another member vote for them for 12 weeks.
GOP leaders attempted to shut down that move — and any future moves to bring up similar proposals — in a procedural vote earlier this week. But Luna and eight other Republicans — some of whom were outraged at the process leadership is using, others who support the underlying proxy voting for new parents push — joined with Democrats to sink a normally procedural vote that included Johnson’s attempt to kill the discharge petition.
As a result, the House floor is at a standstill. The move also blocked action on a pro-Trump priorities on limiting the power of federal judges, and to require proof of citizenship to vote. In response, House GOP leadership canceled votes for the rest of the week.
The pressure is on for Johnson and those who want to shut down the discharge petition. If leaders do nothing, they will have to bring up a vote on proxy voting for new parents as-is.
And if members of the House Freedom Caucus opposed to proxy voting hold up floor action in protest of the issue, that could throw a wrench into plans to vote on a compromise budget resolution teeing up Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” that outlines his ambitious legislative agenda on taxes, energy policy, border funding, and more.
The House returns for votes on Monday evening.
