Member Day in the House Rules Committee is a chance for representatives to offer ideas to make the next Congress run better.
This year’s proposals ranged from letting both the lead Democrat and the lead Republican get official credit for introducing a bill to having party seats on committee reflect the partisan ratio in the House.
Colorado’s Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen came with a request she feels is long overdue.
“I'm proposing that within the House rules, a narrow exception to the prohibition on proxy voting be added to allow members to vote by proxy while taking parental leave,” Pettersen asked of the committee.
She has a personal stake in this issue. Pettersen is five months pregnant with her second child – a boy. He’s due about a month into the new Congress.
She said the change is about allowing her to be a new mom and do her job. Congresswomen who become mothers should not “be forced to come back to Washington and choose between your newborn and representing your constituents.”
Pettersen is not the only one pushing for this kind of exception.
Earlier this year, Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida introduced a bipartisan bill that would allow women to vote by proxy for the first six weeks after having a baby. It came a few months after she gave birth and experienced some complications.
The bill hasn’t advanced so far this Congress, but Luna’s not giving up either. She’s also trying to push for it in a rules package. And if Republicans retain control in the next Congress, she has a plan.
“I'm actually going to hold my vote on Speaker until I get that passed,” she explained.
Luna was just the 12th congresswoman to give birth while holding office. She thinks allowing this exception would be historic.
“The fact that it hasn't been done before is pretty crazy — that women members can't vote if we're recovering from pregnancy, which is crazy,” Luna said. “It's not like you can fake a pregnancy or fake a birth.”
Luna and Pettersen’s proposals differ in the specifics. Luna’s proposal focuses solely on women and would be limited to six weeks. Pettersen would also include men and would allow up to three months of proxy voting.
“What I wanted to do went broader, and I think it should include all parents and that it should be in line with parental leave up to 12 weeks,” said Pettersen.
Parenthood can also take fathers out of the mix at the capitol. For example, during the 15-round Speaker fight last year, freshman Rep. Wesley Hunt’s wife gave birth prematurely and the baby had to stay in the NICU. He missed two rounds of voting and had to return on a Friday night when it looked like McCarthy finally had enough votes.
Pettersen added that allowing proxy voting for new moms could also remove a barrier to younger women seeking congressional office.
“Of the 541 current members across both chambers, only 37 of them are women with children under the age of 18,” Pettersen said. “Moms with kids are underrepresented in this body. And we have the opportunity to remove some of those barriers to make sure that we change things to make it more accessible.”
Neither Speaker Mike Johnson nor Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ office responded to requests for comment on the idea. But it could be a hard sell for Republicans, in particular, many of whom signed onto a lawsuit to stop proxy voting during the pandemic.
Ranking Member of the Rules Committee Jim McGovern said it’s something the Democratic conference would have to discuss. But he supports the idea, in general.
“I mean it’s 2024 not 1954. We ought to utilize technology so that we can serve the American people,” he said.
Whichever party wins control of the House in November, the rules for the next Congress will be voted on in early January – weeks before Pettersen is due to give birth
