President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday he supports a proposal from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to allow new parents in Congress to vote by proxy—marking a break from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has called the proposal “unconstitutional” and said he cannot support it.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said he supports the proxy voting proposal from Luna and Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., for new parents, saying he didn’t understand why it was controversial, noting: “You’re having a baby, you should be able to call in and vote. I’m in favor of that,” multiple outlets reported.
Luna thanked Trump for his support on X, saying he is “the pro-life, pro-family, pro-America President.”
Trump had not previously weighed in on the matter—which has been a touchpoint for Johnson, who maintains that allowing parents to vote remotely while caring for their newborn would “harm the operation of our deliberative body and diminish the critical role of the legislative branch.”
Trump added that while he likes the idea, he’s “going to let the speaker make the decision,” Politico reported.
On Tuesday, nine Republicans sided with Democrats rather than Johnson and rejected his attempt to kill the measure from Luna and Pettersen, which Johnson said was “disappointing” and “unfortunate.”
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Voting by proxy allows a member of Congress to designate another member as a proxy who is able to cast their vote for them, allowing them to not be physically present in Congress but still participate in the vote.
Johnson has dug his heels in while protesting the proxy voting measure. Johnson tried to prevent the measure from making it to the floor Tuesday using a Rules measure that would have tabled the legislation and blocked similar legislation in the future, Politico reported, but Luna and eight other Republicans voted against him. As a result of that not succeeding, Johnson canceled votes for the rest of the week. In a lengthy post on X on Wednesday, he said allowing new parents to vote by proxy would “open a dangerous Pandora’s box for the institution.” Johnson also previously said he believes proxy voting “violates more than two centuries of tradition and institution.”
Yes. Proxy voting was allowed in the 117th Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic after a Democratic majority approved it. Republicans have long opposed proxy voting, and were critical of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for allowing it, The New York Times reported.
Pettersen in January introduced the new parent proxy voting legislation—which would authorize proxy voting in the House for members who gave birth, whose spouse gave birth or who are too far into pregnancy to travel safely for up to 12 weeks. After Johnson’s attempt to stop the legislation failed earlier this week, she said his actions were “out of step with the majority of Americans who believe that young women and families should have a voice in Congress” and added: “we aren’t backing down until we get this done. Let us vote.” Luna, who gave birth while serving as a congresswoman in 2023, consponsored the bill and recently made headlines for leaving the House Freedom Caucus, a heavily influential group of hard-right Republicans, over some members working to quash the proxy voting bill. In a letter, Luna said the “mutual respect,” of the caucus was “shattered” and she was leaving the group. She had hinted at leaving the caucus over the issue in late March, saying on X: “I will not compromise on something as important as ensuring new moms can vote while recovering.”
Nine GOP House members defy Speaker Mike Johnson on new parent proxy voting measure (Washington Post)
House GOP leaders move to kill proxy-voting effort – Live Updates (Politico)
