All things considered, the first three months of the new Congress haven’t been a total disaster for House Speaker Mike Johnson. Many, including me, thought he might struggle in the vote to keep his gavel, but that proved to be a hurdle that the Louisiana Republican easily cleared. Similarly, despite a tiny GOP margin in the chamber, he and his caucus managed to pass a budget resolution and a partisan continuing resolution that prevented a government shutdown.
But in each of these instances, Johnson managed to succeed because he had some backup: Donald Trump told House Republicans how to vote, and GOP members obeyed the president’s instructions.
This week, however, the House speaker suffered a deeply embarrassing setback when he tried to derail a bipartisan measure that would allow new parents in Congress to temporarily vote remotely. Why did Johnson fail on this vote after succeeding on the others? Because Trump stayed out of the fight.
As The New York Times summarized, “The clash underscored — yet again — how dependent the speaker has become on President Trump to keep Republicans in line.”
The good news for Johnson is that the president is no longer neutral on the underlying issue. The bad news for the House speaker is that Trump has decided that Johnson, who has demonstrated limitless loyalty to the White House, is wrong. NBC News reported:
Trump backed an effort led in part by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to allow remote voting for House lawmakers who are new parents. … Trump told reporters on Air Force One today that he has spoken to Luna and supports her initiative, while emphasizing that he understands the perspective of critics who’ve deemed it “controversial.”
“I like the idea of being able to, if you’re having a baby, I think you should be able to call in and vote. I’m in favor of that,” Trump said.
For those who might benefit from a refresher, let’s review how we arrived at this point, because it’s an unusual political fight.
Many American workplaces include some kind of maternity leave policy, but Congress isn’t one of them. In U.S. history, 12 federal lawmakers have given birth during their tenures, and in each instance, they were put in a difficult situation: As a recent New York Times report explained, these members “can take time away from the office without sacrificing their pay,” but they “cannot vote if they are not present at the Capitol.”
With this in mind, many members have decided it’s time for a change. In fact, Democrats are championing a measure that would change congressional rules to allow proxy voting for new parents for up to 12 weeks. While the era of bipartisan policymaking sometimes seems to be a thing of the past, in this instance, several Republicans — including far-right Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida — have partnered with Democrats to approve the reform.
And why not? It’s a pro-family, apolitical idea that doesn’t cost anything. At face value, it seems tough to imagine why anyone would oppose such a change.
And yet, the House speaker, who took full advantage of proxy voting during the pandemic five years ago, has fought tooth and nail against the bipartisan reform effort, insisting that it’s unconstitutional.
This prompted Luna to go around her party leaders with a discharge petition, which received the necessary support and was poised to force an up-or-down vote.
Johnson tried to derail the effort. He failed spectacularly, as nine GOP members voted with Democrats to keep the bipartisan reform measure alive.
In the days that followed, GOP leaders reportedly started exploring new ways to defeat the effort to allow new moms to vote remotely — at which point Trump cut the speaker off at the knees.
What will happen next? Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
