US congresswoman votes with newborn in arms after proxy vote ban
Proxy voting - where a lawmaker designates another to vote on their behalf - was temporarily allowed during the pandemic, but current House rules prohibit it. The restriction allowed some to see the unintended benefits of proxy voting for those recovering from childbirth or illness, but critics argued the policy was being abused. More than 100 Republican members of the House of Representatives, including current Speaker Mike Johnson, filed lawsuit to end the practice, arguing it was unconstitutional.The legal argument failed, but when Republicans regained control of the House in 2023, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy ended proxy voting. Pettersen and another Republican congresswoman who gave birth in 2023 continue to push for flexibility for new parents on Capitol Hill. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican who gave birth in 2023, missed 137 votes in the weeks after she gave birth. Doctors had advised her not to travel while recovering from a difficult birth.Luna called the inability to proxy vote a "slap in the face to every constituent" who elected her. "How is it not discriminatory to tell a duly elected member of Congress that she can't vote because she gave birth to a child?" she said in a video statement last month. "New mothers in Congress should not be forced to choose their careers over children or choose children over careers."But Republican leadership has yet to budge."I have great sympathy, empathy for all of our young women legislators who are of birthing age. It's a real quandary," Johnson said in a statement last month. "But I'm afraid it doesn't fit with the language of the Constitution, and that's the inescapable truth that we have."Jean Sinzdak, associate director at the Center for American Women and Politics, said the pushback, in part, is cultural: many of the leaders of institutions like congress are older men who are not concerned about the trials of young parents and families."It doesn't behove the leaders of these institutions to change this process because it's not affecting them directly," Ms Sinzdak told the BBC.Pettersen and Luna are now trying to bypass Johnson and put the legislation to a floor vote - it is a tough road but it may be their best shot unless the thinking surrounding proxy voting changes.
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