With the House of Representatives stopped, Chairman Mike Johnson refused to fold his strong opposition to allow new parents at the Congress to choose long distances.
“I do not admit something that I believe is not constitutional. I can’t. I vow to uphold the constitution. So, we will find a way through this. We are working on it,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I talked to everyone who voted against the rules, and we will finish it. So, we have time to do it, and the conversation continues.”
Earlier this week, nine Republicans sided with Democrats to mendo procedural rules that included language to kill the Bipartisan Anna Paulina Luna’s release petition about proxy voting for parents of new parliament members.
The voting had thrown the DPR into chaos and paralyzed the room, leaving Johnson to find a way to break the deadlock. The voting also questioned Johnson’s ability to control the majority thinner than the Republican party.
House leaders Republican, including Johnson, said they would take steps that had never happened before to block Luna’s petition in a proxy voting, which gave mothers and father the ability to choose long distances for up to 12 weeks after the birth of a child.
Parliament speaker Mike Johnson attended the Women’s History Month event in the Eastern Room of the White House, March 26, 2025 in Washington.
Win the McNamee/Getty image
After the vote, Johnson said because it failed, “We cannot have further action on this week’s floor.” Rules that MPs votes include language including language to block proxy voting – and other laws.
“The reason I said that the agenda was issued for this week was because it was, it was all in one rule. We can carry out safety laws, but the rest must be carried out in different rules. And I have a large group of DPR Republics who do not want to support the rules until we handle the situation of proxy selection,” he said.
Johnson said he was “actively working” to accommodate young mothers on duty at the congress.
“While I understand the pure motivation of several supporters of the Republican Proxy vote, I cannot support the changes they are looking for,” Johnson Write in a post on X on Wednesday. “Yesterday’s procedural voting was our effort to advance the important legislative agenda of President Trump while deactivating the petition of dismissal who would force the proxy voting and open a dangerous Pandora box for the institution.”
“To allow proxy voting for one member category will open the door for many other people, and ultimately produce long distance voting that will endanger our deliberative body operations and reduce the important role of the legislative branch,” he added.
Johnson said that he wanted a room for mothers to breastfeed directly from the floor of the house even though there was currently one in the Capitol basement. He said the leaders also wanted to allow the use of government money for members to fly their babies to DC with their mother and father.
“We want to accommodate mothers who want to serve at the congress, and we are a pro-family party, so we will do that, but we cannot do anything that violates the constitution or destroy the institution you serve,” he said.