Rep. Luna's proxy deal with leadership 'not a win' for moms, Pettersen says

Justin Papp, CQ-Roll Call on Apr 7, 2025

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WASHINGTON — An agreement between Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna to rely on vote “pairing” for recent and expecting mothers falls short of making Congress a more welcoming place for young parents, Rep. Brittany Pettersen said Monday.

Pettersen, a Colorado Democrat, partnered with the Florida Republican this Congress to push for a change to House rules and allow new mothers and fathers to vote by proxy. Facing headwinds from GOP leadership and the House Freedom Caucus, Luna and Pettersen vowed to fight on, only for Luna to cut a deal over the weekend with Johnson, stymieing the proxy voting effort.

In a statement posted to X, Pettersen was both diplomatic and disappointed.

“We are so grateful to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna for championing this issue that matters deeply to us, and so many other families. Her partnership was essential in building broad bipartisan support from a majority of the House,” Petterson wrote. “But the reality is — this outcome does not address the barriers we’ve fought so hard to overcome.”

Luna announced her agreement with Johnson on Sunday. It would draw on an archaic rule allowing lawmakers to seek out pairings with their colleagues, essentially canceling out the missed vote of an absent member.

Pettersen, who had her second child in January, has spearheaded the proxy voting push this Congress alongside Luna, who in 2023 joined a small group of members of Congress to ever give birth while in office.

In January, Pettersen introduced a resolution allowing proxy voting for up to 12 weeks after the birth of a child. Luna followed in March by filing a discharge petition that quickly garnered the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.

But Johnson, a staunch opponent of proxy voting, dug in and attempted a procedural block.

At a Rules Committee hearing last week, House Republicans inserted language into a rule for four unrelated bills that would have quashed the current discharge petition and other similar attempts in the future.

But nine Republicans, including Luna, bucked leadership and helped to vote the rule down, scuttling consideration of several conservative measures. Johnson responded by canceling votes for the rest of the week as he continued to search for ways to block proxy voting, which was permitted by the Democrat-controlled House during the pandemic and was abused by both parties.

Johnson has characterized the practice as unconstitutional, though he was among the many members who voted by proxy during the pandemic. Even the narrow carveout for recent parents could be a gateway to proxy voting for other reasons, he and other opponents have argued.

“Democrats tried proxy voting before and it was terribly abused. We cannot open that Pandora’s box again,” Johnson wrote on X on Friday.

The proxy voting debate was further jumbled last week when President Donald Trump inserted himself, seemingly lending his support to Luna and the proxy voting effort. By Friday, however, Johnson and Trump had apparently reached an accord on the issue, with the speaker posting the sentiment he suggested he’d heard from the president: “Mike, you have my proxy on proxy voting.”

Democrats, including House Rules ranking member Jim McGovern, slammed the GOP’s machinations to kill proxy voting and undermine the discharge petition process, which allows rank-and-file members to force a vote on legislation over the objections of leadership.

“Never, never in the history of the House has the Rules Committee acted to just outright kill a discharge petition that was already signed by a majority of the House,” McGovern, D-Mass., said at a Rules hearing last week.

Barring any further attempts to officially kill it, any member who signed the proxy discharge petition could in theory still call for a vote on the House floor. But with Luna’s agreement with Republican leadership, it’s unlikely there would be ample support to pass the resolution.

Pettersen, meanwhile, said in her statement that “the fight is far from over,” though she didn’t specify next steps.

“Let’s be clear: these changes are not a win for us and Speaker Johnson has turned his back on moms and dads in Congress and working families,” Pettersen wrote.

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