Mike Johnson Blasts GOPers Who Want Special Voting | Political News
Things are getting heated within the U.S. House of Representatives, and it isn’t your run-of-the-mill Republicans vs. Democrats political sniping. Instead, it is a coalition led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), made up largely of Democrats and a handful of Republicans, that is inflicting main complications for Speaker Mike Johnson this week.
The matter at hand has to do with Luna’s efforts to increase proxy voting privileges to House members—together with each moms and dads—after they welcome new infants into their households. Proxy voting would permit the new mother and father to remain home with their infants and permit one other member to vote of their place for a sure period of time; Luna has urged 12 weeks.
Speaker Johnson is adamantly against proxy voting of any form, together with in instances the place House members are convalescing or in any other case incapacitated. Johnson maintains that members have a constitutional responsibility to be current on the House flooring for votes, whereas Luna argues that an exception must be made for members who’ve simply welcomed a baby.
MORE: Should New Parents Who Serve in Congress Get Special Rights? (VIP)
Things got here to a head Tuesday when Luna, a few of her fellow Republicans, and each House Democrat voted 206-222 to quash a procedural vote meant to stop the proxy voting invoice from advancing. Democrats applauded the motion. There are, nonetheless, some penalties to the Luna coalition’s maneuvers, with all different House voting now halted for the week.
Needless to say, Speaker Johnson just isn’t happy, notably as a result of votes on election integrity and rogue judges are actually delayed.
“Let me just make this clear: That rule being brought down means that we can’t have any further action on the floor this week. That means we will not be voting on the SAVE Act for election integrity. We will not be voting on the rogue judges who are attacking President Trump’s agenda. We will not be taking down these terrible Biden policies with the CRA votes. All that was just wiped off the table. It’s very unfortunate. We’ll regroup and come back and we’ll have to do this again.”
He additionally warned his GOP defectors that that they had “opened a Pandora’s box.”
.@SpeakerJohnson on failed Rule vote: ” Well, it’s very disappointing results on the floor there. A handful of Republicans joined with all the Democrats to take down a rule. That’s rarely done…we can’t have any further action on the floor this week.” pic.twitter.com/lz2imuPQRQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 1, 2025
It’s been the longstanding custom of the House for its members to be current for flooring votes with a view to have their vote depend. Proxy voting has been allowed during committee votes for a few many years now, however was prolonged to all House votes back during COVID (the handiwork of Nancy Pelosi). When the GOP took the bulk in 2023, they did away with proxy voting, thus requiring members to as soon as more be current for votes.
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Rep. Luna is digging her heels in on this problem, having dramatically resigned from the House Freedom Caucus on Monday, saying the “mutual respect” she shared together with her caucus colleagues had been “shattered” over the proxy voting problem. Speaker Johnson can also be not more likely to back down, saying earlier than the procedural vote:
“We addressed this in conference this morning. A couple of our, a handful of our colleagues, have gotten behind the effort, and, look, I’m a father. I’m pro-family,” the speaker stated.
“Here’s the problem. If you create a proxy vote opportunity just for young parents, mothers and, the fathers in those situations, then where is the limiting principle?”
This battle is simply one other instance of how the GOP’s razor-thin House majority comes back to chew them repeatedly. Hopefully, Republicans will likely be victorious in Tuesday’s two particular elections to fill the vacant seats of Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, and return two extra votes to their slim benefit.
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