Johnson weighs options after 'stubborn' Luna forces vote on 'unconstitutional' parental proxy voting

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is weighing his options after a bipartisan group led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) garnered enough support to force a floor vote on legislation to allow proxy voting for new parents — an idea the Speaker called “unconstitutional.”

A discharge petition to force a floor vote on Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s (D-Colo.) bill to allow proxy voting for new parents hit the minimum 218 signatures needed Tuesday, setting the stage for the legislation to come to the floor.

Pettersen gave birth to a son in January and brought him to the Capitol for two high-profile votes in recent weeks. Luna had a son in 2023, months into her first term in the House.

Asked by The Hill on Wednesday about the successful discharge petition effort, Johnson — who is known to oppose proxy voting and previously filed a brief with the Supreme Court against the practice — said he is against the idea.

“I’m afraid the whole thing is unconstitutional,” Johnson said in the Capitol. “I’ve tried to discuss this with Anna, and she’s pretty stubborn about it, so we’ll see what happens. But I’m not in favor of it. I filed a brief to the United States Supreme Court explaining that proxy voting is clearly unconstitutional so, you know, I have a real concern about it.”

Pressed on whether he planned to motion to table the bill when it comes to the floor, Johnson suggested he was searching for ways to stop the effort.

“I’ll try to figure out whatever I need to do with my responsibility to uphold the Constitution, and I think that that would open a Pandora’s box, and ultimately there’ll be different categories of people who demand it, and we’ll all be proxy voting again and no one will be here,” Johnson said. “So I think it’s a real problem.”

It remains unclear what avenues Johnson has now that the discharge petition reached the 218 signatures needed to force a vote. The legislative maneuver is used to force legislation to the floor if leadership does not advance it. The efforts are rarely successful, and rarely led by members of the majority party.

Pettersen’s bill would offer up to 12 weeks of proxy voting to members who give birth, whose spouse gives birth, and pregnant members who are unable to travel safely for medical reasons. Several House lawmakers used proxy voting during the COVID-19 pandemic after Democrats instituted the practice, which Republicans did away with once they took over control of the chamber.

Luna, for her part, has pushed back strongly on the notion that proxy voting is unconstitutional, arguing that “it’s within the left and right limits” and noting “we removed the quorum,” pointing to a provision in the measure that says any members voting by proxy will not be counted for the purposes of designating a quorum — an issue that Republicans brought up when proxy voting was widely used for an omnibus spending bill in 2022.

Luna introduced her discharge petition last week, after trying unsuccessfully to get language allowing parental proxy voting into the House rules package, and 11 Republicans joined scores of Democrats in signing the petition. Luna said there were other lawmakers who wanted to join the effort, but the petition closed once it reached 218 signatures, which is the number needed to force a vote.

Republican Reps. Michael Rulli (Ohio), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Dan Crenshaw (Texas), Byron Donalds (Fla.), Jeff Van Drew (N.J.), Andy Ogles (Tenn.), Dan Meuser (Pa.), Wesley Hunt (Texas), Rich McCormick (Ga.), Dave Joyce (Ohio) and Mike Lawler (N.Y.) signed the petition.

Asked if he was disappointed with the GOP lawmakers who signed the petition, Johnson said he was not, suggesting that they did not understand why he has opposed the practice.

“No, I understand,” Johnson said. “I think some of them did not understand what the basis of the opposition was and didn’t really understand the import of that, so I’ll talk to members about it.”

“I’m not upset about this,” he continued. “I just think that we’ve got to maintain the law and the traditions of the institution, and I don’t think that’s one of them.”

Emily Brooks contributed.

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