Rep. Brittany Pettersen is due to give birth to her second child early next Congress. Whether she does so in her home state of Colorado or in Washington could depend on who wins the House majority this November.
Pettersen, who is seeking reelection in a safely Democratic district, announced she was 20 weeks pregnant last month. And because of a prohibition on proxy voting — the controversial pandemic-era practice that Republicans ditched at the beginning of the 118th Congress — she was staring down a difficult choice between her family and her constituents.
“When elected, I didn’t expect to have a child again,” Pettersen said last week in an interview. “But it makes it even more urgent in this moment for me. I’m trying to figure out what this is going to look like and if I’m able to be home and with my family and my support system and my doctors, or if I’m going to have to have a baby in D.C.”
Pettersen and some other congressional mothers, like Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, believe parents shouldn’t have to choose.
Both lawmakers are advocating for changes to the House’s proxy voting rules, but consensus on the polarizing issue remains elusive. With Republican leaders still largely opposed to the practice and legislative days dwindling before the new year, Pettersen is hoping for a Democratic majority next Congress.
“There’s definitely not going to be any movement with the current leadership on the Republican side,” she said.
Pettersen floated a plan at a recent Rules Committee “member day,” which invited rank-and-file lawmakers to present their ideas for how the House should be run. She wants to allow members — including mothers and spouses — up to 12 weeks of parental leave, during which time they could vote on the floor and in committee by proxy. Luna, on the other hand, has called for up to six weeks of proxy voting for any member who has given birth. Neither proposal would count votes by proxy toward a quorum.
Luna did not respond to a request for comment. But Pettersen has so far withheld support for her Republican counterpart’s resolution, calling it “too narrow.” She views her own suggested rule change as a step toward a more modern and representative Congress, which she said was not designed with young families in mind. Only around a dozen members have ever given birth while in office.
“If we aren’t willing to address some of the reasons why it’s difficult for regular people to serve, then we’re going to continue to have more millionaires than moms with toddlers,” she said.
The Democratic-controlled House implemented proxy voting in the early days of the pandemic over Republican opposition. Lawmakers were allowed to designate a colleague to vote on their behalf if they were unable to physically attend.
The rule change contributed to record-setting vote participation in the House, though members of both parties acknowledged it was abused. Republicans, in particular, went on the offensive to end the practice. They filed lawsuits and undid the Democratic policy once they retook power. Opponents argue it contributes to partisanship. Some say it’s unconstitutional.
“The whole idea of the Congress is bringing people together from diverse places to meet, to discuss and debate issues of the day,” said Mark Strand, an adjunct professor at George Washington University and former president of the Congressional Institute. “It doesn’t work the same way if it’s not in person.”
Strand cited the last major vote of the 117th Congress, on an omnibus spending package that cleared the House despite more than half of all members voting by proxy.
“That’s just insane. It clearly had gotten out of hand,” Strand said.
Though the worst days of the pandemic were in the rearview at the outset of the 118th Congress, members still experienced health issues and family emergencies that made travel to Washington difficult.
North Carolina Democratic Rep. Deborah K. Ross, for one, said she missed some weeks in 2023 when her husband had a health emergency and she came down with COVID-19. Several members this Congress, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., have been diagnosed with cancer and undergone treatment. And Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green made headlines earlier this year when he arrived on the floor in hospital garb after undergoing abdominal surgery to cast a crucial vote against the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“I think that most members would say if you’re undergoing chemo, or you’ve got a communicable disease, you probably shouldn’t be around everybody else, right?” said Daniel Schuman, executive director of the American Governance Institute. “But you do have a constitutional right to participate.”
Schuman called the expansion of proxy voting under emergency circumstances a “humane” approach, but so far it’s gained little momentum.
Ross introduced a resolution last June to change House rules to allow proxy voting if a member, spouse or dependent of a member is experiencing a serious medical condition, including any pregnancy-related condition. That legislation has just six co-sponsors.
“I strongly agree with my colleagues who want to make it easier for pregnant women and new mothers to serve in the House. But we should go further,” she said in an email this week, adding that members facing dire illnesses “should still be able to fulfill their most basic responsibility” of voting on legislation.
After finding no resounding support from GOP leaders for her own proposal, Luna last month began circulating a discharge petition — a parliamentary tool that can be used to force votes on legislation without the backing of leadership — to try to bring it to the floor.
“House Republican Leadership is generally not supportive of proxy voting and has concerns over its legality in addition to slippery slope concerns with regards to this proposal,” a senior House Republican leadership aide said via email.
According to the House Clerk’s website, Luna’s petition has five signatures. Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Mike Lawler of New York have joined the effort, along with Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida. Luna’s underlying resolution, however, has more than 30 co-sponsors, most of them Democrats.
Schuman speculated that Democrats may be wary of handing Republicans a messaging win ahead of a tight election that could see power shift in the House.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., through his office, did not respond to a request for comment. Pettersen, meanwhile, said Democratic leadership had been “incredibly open” to her ideas and understanding of the issue’s importance.
Strand, who called himself a “staunch” opponent of proxy voting, said he was most concerned that reimplementing proxy voting, even under narrow terms, could set a precedent and lead to a reversion back to pandemic-era abuses.
“On the other hand, it makes a lot of sense, especially if you want to have a diverse Congress, to be able to have people take time off with their families when it’s absolutely necessary,” Strand said. “That will make them a better representative, and that will actually then serve the Congress better.”
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