Speaker of the House Mike Johnson shut down the House of Representatives until April 7 rather than allow a vote on proxy voting for Congressional new moms up to twelve weeks. Bottom line up front, the answer is no. This is a bad idea that actually is the opposite of everything that MAGA stands for.
MAGA or Make America Great Again is America First, yes. It is also front facing and hardworking, no excuses. “I can’t.” or “It’s too hard.” are not in our vocabulary. We expect more from ourselves than we do from others. We work hard and we play hard. We don’t make excuses.
At the same time, we love mothers, babies, fathers and extended families. We believe that is the best way for everyone who can.
Finally, we were appalled by the proxy voting that Nancy Pelosi allowed during Covid. Members of Congress only have to show up to work on average 5.7 hours per day for 140 calendar days. This doesn’t seem like a big ask.
That being said, did you hear about the rules change to allow for proxy voting brought to us by Colorado Democrat Brittany Pettersen and Florida GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna. From NPR:
Two moms brought business on the floor of the House of Representatives to a grinding halt on Tuesday over their push to allow remote voting for new parents.
“We said don’t f*** with moms,” Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., said on the steps of the U.S. Capitol alongside Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.
“We worked as a team,” Luna said. “And I think that today is a pretty historical day for the entire conference in showing that the body has decided that parents deserve a voice in Washington and also to the importance of female members having a vote in Washington, D.C.”
Congrats on the teamwork. Negative points for dropping the F-bomb, it’s so weak and lazy. I get the powerful feeling of being a new mom. I felt like the most powerful person in the Universe. Bwa ha ha, I gave birth to a small human, adore me. Actually his head was HUGE and still is. While everyone was happy for me. I didn’t get the adoration I deserved. I mean it, not sarcasm. Unfortunately, I still had it better than most women in the world.
The New York Post had even better details:
The GOP revolt, spearheaded by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), was a blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who swiftly moved to cancel scheduled votes for the remainder of the week.
Last month, Luna (R-Fla.) secured the required 218 signatures to a parliamentary tool known as a discharge petition, forcing a vote on her bill to allow proxy voting for new moms, pregnant women who are unable to travel safely or have a serious medical condition, and lawmakers whose spouses are pregnant or giving birth.
A bid to quash the petition and prohibit further proxy voting proposals — tucked into an otherwise routine rules package — failed 222-206 Tuesday, giving the House two legislative days to consider Luna’s measure with a final vote expected next week.
Let us hope that the nine Republicans, who voted with the Democrats, reconsider their positions. Are you listening Tim Burchett?
These 9 Republicans are the beginning of the end of the progress Trump has been making. I’m genuinely heartbroken over @timburchett and @Congressman_JVD What a colossal waste of time. pic.twitter.com/9ZYNOcam4c
— Chris Stigall (@ChrisStigall) April 1, 2025
More:
“It is unfathomable that in 2025, we have not modernized Congress.”
“Given the chance to actually support families, they turn their backs,” added Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), directing his comments to Republicans. “A majority of the chamber is upending what the majority in this chamber wants.”
Luna’s bill would allow House members to designate a colleague to cast votes for them when they cannot by physically present in the chamber in order to care for their newborns.
Proxy voting was allowed by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Excuse me, Anna Paulina? Modernize Congress? I thought five years after the Plandemic we had decided that working in person was best. Maybe Miss Luna should call Elon Musk. Here’s a little more:
Republicans barred proxy voting — which is also prohibited in the US Senate — after regaining control of the House in January 2023, with then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Johnson and others arguing the practice is unconstitutional.
The speaker, a father of five, has said that he sympathizes with the struggles of new parents, but has cited the Constitution’s Quorum Clause — Article I, Section 5, Clause 1 — which states that a majority of each house needs to be present in order to conduct business.
“I believe it violates more than two centuries of tradition and institution,” Johnson said late last month. “And I think that it opens a Pandora’s box, where ultimately, maybe no one is here.”
“I believe we should show up to work,” argued Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a father of two. “I believe, like every other single American who has to physically get in their car, go get in traffic, go show up to their job, go show up to the job site, go work all day in the sun.”
That whole showing up is really not just for the quorum, but also for transparency. If the job is too much, a congresscritter can always resign:
When my baby sister was born with two holes in her heart and needed a very risky surgery, my father, @SecDuffy, knew he needed be at home with his newborn daughter, my mother, and my eight siblings. So my dad resigned. What he did not do was demand an unconstitutional exception… pic.twitter.com/TFtLKFWeYq
— Evita Duffy-Alfonso (@evitaduffy_1) April 2, 2025
This is not anti-woman or anti-family. This is life. Most women have to work far harder for far less and yet they “pay the cost to be the boss” and Congresswomen are complaining. You win the privilege to represent your district in Congress, you have on-site childcare, and you want to proxy vote. You should have just stayed home.
Featured Image: Grok/X/Public Domain
John Shepherd says: Your position is stupid. It will benefit the GOP more than the Democrats. It costs nothing, looks pro- women and Republicans are more likely to have children.
SFC D says: Proxy voting for any reason is stupid. If anyone, male, female, parent or not needs an exception to established procedure to do their job as an elected representative of the people, they are in the wrong line of work and need to resign. If this proxy vote was passed, what would the next proxy exception be? We do not want to go down this path. You are concerned about looks, optics, everything but efficiency. The rest of us expect our elected representatives to do their jobs.
John Shepherd says: So you think the member should resign? Great! It will help the Democrats. This is the 21st Century. We make accommodations.
GWB says: This is the 21st century. And using that as an argument is one of the most progressive things you can do. No, we shouldn’t make accommodations above and beyond the ones we already have: taxpayer-funded daycare on-site.
SFC D says: Absolutely. If you cannot or will not show up to do what you were elected to do, stay home. I don’t care what your political affiliation is.
GWB says: What is stupid is your position, since it’s not based on any real conservative principles of any sort.
Nina Bookout says: What’s asinine is that they are wasting time on this unnecessary grandstanding and Peterson is using her 3 month old baby as a political prop when …Guess WHAT? There’s been a daycare in place FOR Congress since 1987. https://childcare.house.gov/home
AND, it was given a massive $12 million upgrade that was finished in…drumroll please… 2019! https://kslnewsradio.com/utah/captiol-hill-daycare/1896237/
So they can take their proxy vote grandstanding and stuff it.
A reader says: Gotta love arguing that you’re pro family when yo win allow people to do their jobs and support their families in a way that works for them! Who does proxy voting hurt, exactly? No one! Why not allow it other than to be a jerk?
This quote shows both this writer’s hubris and ignorance: “ That whole showing up is really not just for the quorum, but also for transparency. If the job is too much, a congresscritter can always resign.”
Surely, considering that as I recall at least one of your writers had a pregnancy complication, that not all pregnancies go as swimmingly as yours apparently did? Sometimes things can turn on a dime. You can be ok one day and nearly dying the next. And if a woman is stuck in the hospital or her child is in the NICU and sick, why should she have to give up her seat? Or a man whose wife/partner is in a similar situation? To do realize that if someone is elected, becomes pregnant, has a pregnancy complication and then quits— all in less than 2 years mind you— that often means a special election has to happen and the seat is left vacant for a period of time, don’t you? How is that a good idea, especially if the margins are tight. Logic really isn’t your strong suit, now is it?
Also, family members can die or be terminally ill. A congressperson can have a parent or spouse become ill suddenly and need care for a period of time, but oh no, we must be cruel jerks and make them go to DC just to “own the Libs” or because we can’t do what was done during COVID. Oh the horror!
The disconnect here is so insane. You can’t call yourself a party that supports families if you, you know, don’t support families, all families, no matter the circumstances.
GWB says: Oh? You don’t think proxy voting has all sorts of bad possible outcomes? Then why, given the 230+ year nature of not allowing it, has it never been used before? It doesn’t require hi-tech communications.
Because it is just ASKING for fraud. And it privileges members of Congress. “Oh, by jove, I’ve got a sitting for my portrait tomorrow. Mr Junior Member, you will cast my vote for me, won’t you?”
How is that a good idea, especially if the margins are tight.
Hmmm, if you view that without an attitude of privilege, you see the solution is on the other end of your timeline.
Logic really isn’t your strong suit, now is it?
Oof! You went there? Ai chihuahua.
This isn’t supporting families. This is supporting women who feel entitled to be the career woman AND pretend to be the loving stay-at-home mom. It’s also supporting representatives who feel a little under the weather, and family members who want to up their “family” bona fides (you know Buttigig would have used this if he were in Congress).
Que says: I just finished listening to an interview with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the new head of the NIH, on the “Honestly” podcast at The Free Press. The man is obviously brilliant, but what comes across more than anything else is his grace towards others — even to those who castigated him for his anti-lockdown stance during the pandemic. This grace comes largely from his Christian faith.
This article, however, contains none of that. Instead it’s harsh and unforgiving to women who merely want a short window in which to cast their votes by proxy. There is no grace in MAGA world — only retribution to those with whom they disagree and of course, worship of Trump. Christian goodwill can take a back seat.
GWB says: Christian goodwill can take a back seat.
ACTUAL Christian goodwill is moderated by righteousness and justice. It actually starts in those positions, then moves toward goodwill. Absolutely nothing in “Christian goodwill” requires me to allow someone to not do the job for which they were elected.
Sorry, but what she wants is someone else to do her job for her so she can do something else she wants to do. While, of course, still cashing those paychecks and getting those perks.
It really is privilege and entitlement showing through.
Que says: If I want theologic pedantry, I’ll consult my pastor, not take pontification from some rando commenter at a blog.
Go ahead, keep up with your MAGA quibbling. But don’t be surprised when you lose even more support among college educated women. No doubt you hold them in contempt. But you MAGA Republicans would love their votes on Election Day.
GWB says: I’ll consult my pastor
You’re welcome.
lose even more support among college educated women
The most Progressive demographic in America today. And therefore not Christian (though many think they are). I do not want their votes if they want the country run in a Progressive fashion. I do want to try and change their minds about Progressivism so they vote otherwise. Arguments like those above are NOT the reason they won’t.
GWB says: parents deserve a voice in Washington
You already “have a voice” through your elected representatives. This is the same progressive carp as “Congress should look like America” in terms of having the right numbers of everyone.
And it’s pretty f***ing entitled.
failed 222-206 Tuesday
And it was almost entirely along partisan lines? Huh, who could have figured that? Since the proposal is VERY progressive. It’s New Parent Privilege on steroids (which are bad for children, btw).
we have not modernized Congress
Why should we? This is the progressive mindset. What does “modernizing” achieve? In this case… nothing except that some people are better than others and get special privileges.
If you wanted to talk about making everything remote, I might at least listen to the arguments. But that’s not what this is about.
Given the chance to actually support families
And there is the attack line you’ve given the progressives. SMH. No, this does not support families. It supports women who want to try and have their cake and eat it, too. And others – you saw it also applies to new dads (and, arguably, new moms, if they are the lesbian “spouse” of someone giving birth) and people who just can’t make it because they’re ill in some fashion. Apparently it doesn’t require a doctor’s note to excuse you.
Actually supporting families would be to NOT encourage the “I can be Suzie Homemaker AND Big Time Player” concept.
upending what the majority in this chamber wants
So, NOW you want to play populist?
to designate a colleague to cast votes for them
IOW, it would allow them to have someone else do their job. Which is one of the arguments against the “Family Leave” sort of legislation – because no one is going to go to the effort to hire someone for 4 months to a position requiring expertise and knowledge of the position if it’s only temporary. I know this, as I work in contracting – filling a position when someone leaves with, say, 4 months on the contract is near impossible. So, yes, the rest of us pick up the slack in some way. And that’s exactly what the proponents of this bill are arguing for.
the Constitution’s Quorum Clause
Yep.
I believe we should show up to work
Well, all those Family Leave people argue otherwise. THEY don’t have to show up to work. They get paid time off well above and beyond what all the other workers get. So, hey, why shouldn’t they be able to compel the representative of some other group of constituents to do the work for which they were elected for them?
also for transparency
With the advent of “AI” who could really tell it was you, even if we only allowed remote voting (instead of proxy voting)?
You should have just stayed home.
Well, that’s what they’re asking to do. But they want to keep all the perks and pay.
IOW, it’s f***ing entitlement, pure and simple. H*** no.
GWB says: Oh, and Toni? You do know this is what you get when you spent so long hollering about how we should just listen to all those moms out there. This is the problem with populism. And with feminism, ultimately.
Toni Williams says: I was hollering the other way. When there were those of us having to pick up the slack for new moms out on leave.
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