President Trump on Thursday said he supports the effort to allow for proxy voting for new parents, while the standoff between House GOP leadership and Rep. Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) hardens over the issue.
“I don’t know why it’s controversial,” Trump said.
“I’m going to let the Speaker make the decision but I like the idea,” the president added. “I’m in favor of that…I would agree with that.”
He also told reporters, while flying to Miami on Air Force One, that he spoke with Luna on Wednesday. Luna told NewsNation on Wednesday night that she had talked to Trump about the matter.
“The president assured that this would get resolved,” Luna said.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has been scrambling to break an impasse over the push for proxy voting, after Luna joined with more than 200 Democrats and nine Republicans to use a procedure known as a discharge petition to circumvent leadership and force a vote on the matter.
Luna executed the discharge petition to force a vote on Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s (D-Colo.) resolution, which would allow members who give birth or lawmakers whose spouses give birth to have another member vote for them for 12 weeks.
Johnson and GOP leaders, who argue that proxy voting is unconstitutional and extending it to new parents could be a slippery slope, attempted to shut down that move — and any future moves to bring up similar proposals — in a procedural vote earlier this week.
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, leadership canceled votes for the rest of the week.
The White House has been mum on whether the president backs Luna or Johnson on the issue after press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that she didn’t know his stance on proxy voting.
Johnson’s stance has been that allowing members to vote by proxy is unconstitutional. He told reporters recently, “I took an oath to uphold the Constitution.”
He said on Wednesday that she was looking at other ways to support new moms in the Capitol.
