Inside the House's growing war over proxy voting
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Rep. Anna Paulina Luna leaving the U.S. Capitol on March 11. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The House of Representatives erupted into infighting Tuesday over allowing members who are new parents to vote on bills by proxy for three months.
Why it matters: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and some House conservatives are mounting an 11th-hour push to stop the vote dead in its tracks.
- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who is spearheading the effort along with Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.), launched what is known as a discharge petition earlier this month to force a vote on the proposed rule change.
- The petition attained the necessary 218 signatures — a dozen of which came from Republicans — to force a vote on the House floor.
What we're hearing: Johnson, who fought to overturn COVID-era proxy voting rules, is urging fellow Republicans to oppose the bill.
- At a closed-door House Republican conference meeting Tuesday, the House speaker cited constitutional arguments Republicans made against proxy voting when Democrats controlled the House, a source familiar with the matter told Axios.
- He also made the case that discharge petitions effectively hand control of the floor to Democrats.
State of play: A group of right-wing House Freedom Caucus members held up an unrelated procedural vote Tuesday to force a conversation with leadership about their concerns regarding the discharge petition.
- Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters of the exchange: "We're having a spirited conversation about how things get to the floor, what gets to the floor and when it gets there."
- "The House is a majoritarian body. That's fine. But we're also a body that has parties and you have to be able to manage and control the floor," he added.
The other side: Luna, who has pushed ahead with the proxy voting effort despite the strong headwinds from her party, signaled she is still not backing down.
- "I look forward to changing the institution, it needs to happen," Luna said. "I'm not just going to simply fall in line because they say it's a tool of the minority, which is stupid."
- Luna predicted that if House Republican leadership attempts to use a procedural motion to stop the vote, "it will fail."
The intrigue: Republicans aren't the only ones who have raised objections to the proxy voting measure, Axios has learned.
- Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said she raised objections to the language appearing to exclude surrogacy and adoption — commonly used methods for gay couples to have children — telling Axios: "It's not a perfect bill and it does frustrate me."
- Balint said she initially hesitated to sign the discharge petition but ultimately opted to do so "to try to get *something* done on this topic."
What to watch: All Democrats, including Balint, are expected to vote for the bill if it comes to the floor, a House Democratic leadership source told Axios.
- Some of the Republicans who signed the discharge petition, however, appear to be wavering.
- "We're going to see how that goes," said Rep. Michael Rulli (R-Ohio). "Anna's a good friend of mine ... [but] I would like it to be codified into law to be honest. That would probably be a better approach."
