Here’s the background:
I’m co-leading a bipartisan effort to allow Members of Congress to vote by proxy for twelve weeks after they or their spouse give birth. Basically, it allows for new parents to be where they’re needed most, when they’re needed most, and still do their jobs in Congress.
Congress was designed by and for older men, and it’s far past time to modernize our rules to reflect the people actually serving here now — and those who may want to serve here in the future.
Mike Johnson doesn’t want this bill to move forward. He says it’s unconstitutional, even though the Supreme Court has already declined to take up a case challenging proxy voting. And yes — he used proxy voting himself during the height of the COVID pandemic.
It’s not unconstitutional — it’s common sense.
200 years ago, secure proxy voting wasn’t possible. Today, it is. And it’s one of the most obvious ways we can support new parents — so they can care for their newborns and still serve their constituents.
In fact, this bill is so straightforward and so widely supported that 218 Members of Congress signed the discharge petition, essentially overriding Republican House leadership to force a vote on the bill. That’s the minimum needed — and we hit it faster than any discharge petition in recorded Congressional history.
Now Speaker Johnson is using behind-the-scenes procedural tricks to try and block the bill anyway. Today, he derailed his own legislative agenda because he tried to tie tanking our proxy voting bill with the passage of some of his and Donald Trump’s toxic bills. And when the effort failed…he cancelled votes for the entire week. Today is Tuesday, and now we won’t be voting again until Monday.
Because he doesn’t want to accommodate new moms in Congress? Because he thinks Congress should still only work for men?
Honestly, it’s hard to think of a good reason to block this bill.
So I’m asking for your help:
Will you chip in so that I can keep standing up for families and doing this work?
