When it was time to vote on the House Republicans’ budget package last month, Rep. Brittany Pettersen had her arms full. Quite literally.
Pettersen, a Colorado Democrat, had just given birth four weeks earlier. She wasn’t allowed to vote by proxy — a process that allows a colleague to cast a vote in a member’s stead, something that was utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic — so instead, she packed up newborn Sam, hopped on a flight and made it to Washington, D.C., to vote. With her baby.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t given the opportunity to vote remotely after giving birth, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from being here to represent my constituents,” Pettersen, 43, said from the House floor in February, while cradling her son.
Pettersen is leading a bipartisan charge in Congress to allow proxy voting for new parents. The idea is to ensure members won’t have to choose between representing their constituents and taking care of their newborns, making Congress more accessible and representative of Americans, the lawmakers have said.
If successful, new mothers and fathers would be allowed to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks (except in cases establishing a quorum) and allow pregnant members to vote by proxy if there’s a pregnancy-related medical issue that would prevent travel. Pre-birth proxy voting would count against the 12 weeks of parental leave, according to a news release.
The resolution is spearheaded by Pettersen and Reps. Sara Jacobs, D-San Diego; Mike Lawler, R-New York; and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida.
“The 119th Congress is the third oldest Congress since 1789 — and our internal House rules are partially to blame for that,” said Jacobs. “The House has largely failed to modernize and make changes to be more inclusive, accessible and welcoming to young people, including new parents and soon-to-be parents.”
Jacobs, 36, said she delayed starting a family and froze her eggs when she first joined Congress in 2021, partly because of the demands of the job, which include traveling back and forth across the country.
“This is a small but important step forward to make our government more representative of our country and ultimately pass policies that help families make ends meet and thrive,” she said.
Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, is also an early backer of the resolution.
“There’s no one better suited to make policies that support parents than parents themselves,” said Kim. “This effort will encourage more people, especially young women, to run for Congress and grow the variety of perspectives in the House so we can ultimately better serve the American people.”
But like most things politics these days, the effort — despite the bipartisan support — is facing some hurdles.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has said he believes voting by proxy is “unconstitutional” and “violates more than two centuries of tradition.” He said opening up proxy voting for new parents could then lead to other lawmakers wanting to vote that way if they’re taking care of an ill spouse or eventually, all lawmakers being out of the building “voting by AI or something.”
“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,” Johnson said during a recent House Republican Leadership press conference. “But proxy voting, in my view, is unconstitutional.”
Luna, a rising star in the Republican Party and a Santa Ana native, was able to get enough signatures from her colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, that would force a floor vote on the resolution. But she has said members of her own party have tried to convince her to drop the effort or are threatening members who are backing it, according to Politico.
“I look forward to changing the institution; it needs to happen,” Luna said, as reported by Axios. “I’m not just going to simply fall in line because they say it’s a tool of the minority, which is stupid.”