WASHINGTON | President Donald Trump on Thursday endorsed a proposal that would allow new parents in Congress to vote by proxy, rather than in person.
Trump’s position, articulated to reporters on Air Force One on Thursday, put him at odds with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who mounted an aggressive push to kill that effort this week but was foiled by nine of his own members, along with all Democrats.
Though the president said he would defer to Johnson on the operations of the House, he also said, “I don’t know why it’s controversial.” Trump said he had spoken to Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, the leading Republican proponent of the effort.
“If you’re having a baby, I think you should be able to call in and vote,” Trump told reporters Thursday as he traveled to Florida. “I’m in favor of that.”
Luna joined with Lakewood Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen to force through the rule change. Petterson is also a new mother and was forced to take her days-old baby boy to the House floor for critical votes last month.
In a post late Thursday on X, Luna said Johnson called her after Trump’s remarks “and we discussed limiting the vote to just new moms who cannot physically travel in event of emergency etc. This is smart.”
“When I was pregnant, I couldn’t fly towards the end of my due date because it was unsafe for Sam, and you’re unable to board a plane,” Pettersen said during floor debate, as reported earlier by Colorado Newsline. “I was unable to actually have my vote represented here and my constituents represented.”
“After giving birth I was faced with an impossible decision: Sam was four weeks old and for all of the parents here we know that when we have newborns it’s when they’re the most vulnerable in their life, it’s when they need 24-7 care, when taking them even to a grocery store is scary because you’re worried about exposure to germs and them getting sick — let alone taking them to an airport, on a plane and coming across the country to make sure you’re able to vote and represent your constituents.”
Pettersen told Colorado Newsline she was “terrified that no matter what choice” she made about whether to vote in-person, she would have “deep regrets.”
“So Sam and I made the trip out and this is our third time coming to the floor for a vote,” she said.
Pettersen said it was “unfathomable that in 2025” Congress had not modernized to have basic parental leave and said the institution has “a long ways to go to make this place accessible for young families like mine.”
Luna and Pettersen have led an effort that would allow new parents in Congress to vote by proxy for 12 weeks as they care for their newborns. It has the support of the majority of the House, with 218 lawmakers signing on to a so-called discharge petition that would force the measure on the House floor for consideration.
But Johnson is an adamant opponent of casting votes by proxy, saying that doing so is an affront to the Constitution and invoked similar efforts instituted by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“It was quickly abused. Republicans put an end to it then, and we cannot allow it again,” Johnson said in a lengthy social media post this week. The speaker says he is working on “every possible accommodation” aside from being able to vote by proxy to aid new mothers in Congress.
Johnson attempted to squash the proxy effort in a dramatic floor vote earlier this week, but nine of his own Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting his plan, 206-222. The speaker canceled House votes for the rest of the week while supporters of the proxy voting plan were undeterred and vowed to continue to push for it.