A bitter intraparty dispute came to a head Tuesday as Republican members of the House Rules Committee, with the support of Speaker Mike Johnson, worked to shut down an effort to allow proxy voting for new parents in the House.
Tension had been building for weeks, as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., led a push to circumvent leadership and force the issue. Proxy voting would let new moms recover after birth while still doing their jobs, Luna said, while Johnson, R-La., sees it as a slippery and unconstitutional slope.
A majority of House members, including a dozen Republicans, signed on to Luna’s discharge petition. But leadership sought to reexert control Tuesday, relying on the Rules Committee to insert language into a rule for unrelated bills.
