House panel recesses as GOP leaders weigh blocking proxy voting for new parents

The House Rules Committee went into recess on Monday night without taking action that would tee up a way for House Republican leaders to block Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) from forcing a vote on allowing new parents to vote by proxy.

The panel is scheduled to reconvene at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, when it will unveil and pass a rule that will officially reveal if GOP leaders will play hardball in trying to defeat the proposal.

Luna and others are waiting for the official play call from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has been having discussions with members over the last week about how to handle the matter — and has not convinced a defiant Luna to back down.

Luna earlier this month defied leadership and oversaw a successful discharge petition — getting signatures from over 200 Democrats and 11 other Republicans — that could allow her to use privileged status to force floor action on a resolution to allow members who give birth or lawmakers whose spouses give birth to designate another member to vote on their behalf for 12 weeks.

But Luna’s one-time allies in the House Freedom Caucus have been pushing Johnson to play legislative hardball to stop it from moving forward.

One proposal being discussed is to “turn off” the discharge petition privilege that would allow Luna to force a vote, attaching that mechanism to a rule resolution that would tee up consideration for other Republican priorities. 

Such a move would mean that those who wanted to support Luna by voting against the rule would also be blocking speedy consideration of those priorities. While all Democrats are expected to vote against the rule, it is unclear if Luna would have the support from Republicans to defeat such a gambit and allow her proxy voting proposal to move forward.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Monday night that "there's still some conversations being had" on how to handle the proxy voting matter, and the decision about whether to add language to "turn off" privilege was not final.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the Rules Committee, said Monday that he was not sure what the plan was on whether the rule would address the proxy voting issue.

The exact language and proposal would move through the House Rules Committee, which on Monday night completed the hearing portion of Republican-supported proposals: The No Rogue Rulings Act, which would limit the power of federal judges to impose nationwide injunctions like those that have blocked Trump administration actions; and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.

Luna is furious at the prospect of the leadership move — and by her fellow Freedom Caucus working against her, leading her to leave the group.

In her letter announcing her departure from the hardline group, Luna wrote: “I cannot remain part of a caucus where a select few operate outside its guidelines, misuse its name, broker backroom deals that undermine its core values and where the lines of compromise and transaction are blurred, disparage me to the press, and encourage misrepresentation of me to the American people.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Monday night that Luna had to “team up with mostly Democrats, 90 percent Democrats, who are in the minority” to set her up to trigger a vote on proxy voting for new parents.

“We’re in the majority on the Republican side, and want to be able to move the Republican agenda. And you know, I’d rather not move Pelosi policies over the majority,” Scalise said.

Mychael Schnell contributed.