ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Two moms in the House of Representatives - one Republican and one Democrat - are trying to change House rules so new parents in Congress can vote remotely. GOP leaders are working to derail the effort, but Florida's Anna Paulina Luna, the Republican mom on the bill, is not backing down.
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ANNA PAULINA LUNA: I think the argument here is that if you want representation that truly reflects the American people, you want young, working parents. Why would you work against that?
SHAPIRO: NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh reports.
DEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: Colorado Democrat Brittany Pettersen knew her vote against the GOP budget could be the deciding one, so she flew to Washington with her 4-week-old son to cast it.
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BRITTANY PETTERSEN: This is going to have a huge burden on our hospitals, and unfortunately...
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PETTERSEN: ...We'll have skyrocketing costs. I agree, Sam.
WALSH: As a mom of a toddler, she knew Congress wasn't family friendly when she ran in 2022 but told NPR from her home office she worried about traveling with her newborn.
PETTERSEN: Scary - it's dangerous. You worry about your kid even going to the grocery store with you when they're that young, let alone, you know, being in an airplane, in an airport, being on the House floor.
WALSH: She and Luna pressed the speaker to allow a vote to permit proxy voting for up to 12 weeks for parents around the birth of a child. House Speaker Mike Johnson refused.
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MIKE JOHNSON: I'm a father. I'm pro-family. The Republican Party is pro-family. We want to make it as easy as possible for young parents to be able to participate in the process. But proxy voting, in my view, is unconstitutional.
WALSH: So Luna took the unusual step of working with Democrats to wield a procedural tool - getting a majority of members to sign a petition and force a vote.
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LUNA: The discharge petition is in place for the event that leadership is not doing the right thing, and they are not doing the right thing right now. They're not being honest brokers. And that's the thing - is that that's a problem, is there's a trust issue in Washington. We're going to fix that. I'm not backing down.
WALSH: She and Pettersen succeeded, and nearly a dozen Republicans bucked their leaders to sign the petition. But Luna says GOP leaders are playing hardball to block the effort, including dangling a plum committee seat for her to back down.
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LUNA: Let this be known - I am not for sale. My vote is not for sale. This is more than just a committee assignment.
WALSH: Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett signed the petition, but says a senior Republican offered him votes on a pair of his bills to vote against Luna's.
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TIM BURCHETT: Yeah, they said - somebody said, well, if we got those bills on the floor, would you vote against Luna? And I was like, voting against pregnant women - are y'all crazy?
WALSH: GOP leaders are now planning to block the bill from coming up for a vote.
PETTERSEN: It blows my mind that they are this opposed to making sure that...
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PETTERSEN: That's Sam in the background (laughter).
WALSH: Pettersen says this is about modernizing Congress, which she says is set up to favor older men.
PETTERSEN: It makes me angry because if they were in this position, they would have a different perspective.
WALSH: In 2020, then-speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed proxy voting for all members due to the COVID pandemic, and it was used by members of both parties. Johnson signed onto a court filing opposing the practice in 2020 but cast his vote remotely more than once, including on this bill in 2022.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: As a member designated by Mr. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, I inform the House that Mr. Johnson will vote no on H.R.8404.
WALSH: Republicans did away with proxy voting when they won the majority in 2023. The speaker says now he's fighting for the institution.
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JOHNSON: This is a deliberative body. You cannot deliberate with your colleagues if you're out somewhere else.
WALSH: Luna says this would benefit Republicans who are already worried about their slim majority. A GOP colleague just announced she's expecting. And...
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LUNA: What if I get pregnant? Is it going to be a problem that we're not here? I mean, my goodness - the oldest Congress in U.S. history. This will be better for the institution in the long term, and I think many of my colleagues agree with me.
WALSH: A vote to decide on the rules change is expected as early as tomorrow. Deirdre Walsh, NPR News, the Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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