House Speaker Mike Johnson exercised his power of the gavel Tuesday in an unusually aggressive effort to squash a proposal for new parents in Congress to able to vote by proxy, rather than in person, as they care for newborns.

His plan failed, 206-222.

In an unprecedented move, the House Republican leadership had engineered a way to quietly kill the bipartisan plan from two new mothers — Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of St. Petersburg and Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado. Their plan has support from a majority of House colleagues. Some 218 lawmakers backed their effort, signing on to a so-called discharge petition to force their proposal on the House floor for consideration.

But Johnson, like GOP leaders before him, rails against proxy voting, as President Donald Trump pushes people back to work in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic work-from-home trend.

A procedural vote Tuesday tested who had the tally on their side — the speaker or the plan’s sponsors. Nine Republicans joined all Democrats to sink the GOP leaders’ effort.

“If we don’t do the right thing now, it’ll never be done,” said Luna, who gave birth to her son in 2023.

Pettersen, with a diaper over her shoulder and 4-month-old son Sam in her arms, stood on the House floor and pleaded with colleagues to turn back the GOP leadership’s effort to stop their resolution.

“It is unfathomable that in 2025 we have not modernized Congress,” she said. “We’re asking you to continue to stand with us.”

Johnson had drawn the line against proxy voting as unconstitutional.

“Look, I’m a father, I’m pro-family,” the Republican speaker said late last month. But “I believe it violates more than two centuries of tradition and institution. And I think that it opens a Pandora’s box, where ultimately, maybe no one is here.”

It’s the first time in modern House history that the leadership was taking the extraordinary step to try to halt a discharge petition when it’s this far along. Next steps are uncertain.

Luna used the discharge petition process as she and others grew frustrated that House committees and party leaders were not bringing the proxy-voting proposal forward. Instead, she and others gathered the majority signatures needed, 218, to discharge it from limbo, and force it to the floor for action.

At a rules committee hearing early Tuesday, the GOP-led panel tucked a provision into the routine rules process that would have prohibited not just this discharge petition but any others that try to push proxy voting forward.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the panel, said a discharge petition has never been halted before at this stage — a remarkable move from Republicans who often campaign as the party aligned with family values.

“Given the chance to actually support families, they turn their backs,” he said. “A majority of the chamber is upending what the majority in this chamber wants.”

Republicans countered that Luna, who led the discharge effort, did not go through the regular process of waiting for their resolution to be brought to the floor through normal procedure. And they criticized the temporary proxy voting policy that Democrats put in place during the pandemic that they said was abused by member absences.

“You have to come to work, you have to be present,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, during a committee debate.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and the chair of the Rules Committee, decried what she called the “laptop class” in America that doesn’t have the luxury of working by proxy. “Members of Congress simply need to show up for work,” she said.

About a dozen women have given birth while in Congress over the years, and there are many new fathers as well. One, Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Texas Republican, had dashed back to Washington for votes in 2023 after his wife had just given birth and their son was in an intensive care unit.

Many new and existing parents were among the eight other Republicans who joined Luna to push ahead past the leadership.

Luna’s petition opens the door for the House to vote on a resolution that would allow new parents serving in Congress to designate a proxy — another member of Congress — to vote on their behalf for 12 weeks.

Republicans had barred proxy voting once they took control of the House from Democrats in 2023. The new resolution, which includes specific procedures on how the new parent would deliver voting instructions, would mean a change in their House rules.

The resolution from the mothers allows proxy voting for lawmakers who have given birth or pregnant lawmakers who are unable to travel safely or have a serious medical condition. It also applies to lawmakers whose spouses are pregnant or giving birth.

Under the resolution, qualifying lawmakers may designate a proxy to cast a vote for them for up to 12 weeks.

Luna, who is among the House’s more conservative lawmakers, made headlines for her steadfast support of Trump. But she resigned this week from the archconservative House Freedom Caucus, saying she could no longer be part of the group if members “broker backroom deals” against its values.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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The House Human Services Subcommittee unanimously advanced mental health legislation that seeks to expand programs and establish policies to ensure mental health evaluations are part of probation conditions.

The bill (HB 1207) known as the “Tristan Murphy Act,” was presented by Eustis Republican Rep. Nan Cobb, who detailed the events that led Tristan Murphy, who suffered with mental illness, to take his own life.

“Tristan had been struggling with mental illness,” Cobb said. “He had been in and out of jail for numerous things. The crowning blow, I think, for Tristan, was the night that he drove his pickup truck into a lake in front of the Sheriff’s Office in Charlotte County, and he was charged with littering with over 500 pounds. He caught a three-year felony, and they took a paranoid schizophrenic, and they put him in isolation for 117 days.”

Cobb said that Tristan was put into a work crew once he was let out and had not carried on with his treatment.

“Once they got him out, they got him into competency restoration, which should have been within 15 days, and it was not,” Cobb said. “They finally got him competent. And when he came back, he was put on a work crew. Instead of having his treatment, they put him on a work crew, and they gave him a chainsaw. Tristan took his life with a chainsaw to try to decapitate himself.”

Cobb explained the bill would expand grants that support intervention programs and diversion initiatives to include training for 911 operators, EMS technicians and Veterans Treatment Court programs.

The bill would further expand the use of criminal justice, mental health and substance abuse reinvestment grant program funds, while exempting constrained counties from certain grant requirements.

The Department of Children and Families would be authorized to implement a forensic hospital diversion pilot program in Hillsborough County in conjunction with the 13th Judicial Circuit. The bill also provides model processes for both misdemeanor and nonviolent felony mental health diversion programs.

“It authorizes a court to make a mental health evaluation and any resulting recommendations, conditions of probation in certain circumstances, a state attorney has the sole discretion on who enters into the program and dismissal of charges upon completion,” Cobb explained.

“It establishes the Florida Behavioral Health Care Data Repository within the Northwest Regional Data Center to help compile mental health data securely and coordinate between relevant state agencies.”

The Department of Corrections would also be required to evaluate the physical and mental health of each inmate eligible for work assignments or correctional programs prior to the final assignment.

Barney Bishop, from Florida Smart Justice Alliance supported the bill and said it builds on already existing programs.

“Representatives, this is similar to the juvenile civil citation program, which has been around here in Florida for over 25 years,” Bishop said. “Gives an opportunity for people to be diverted and to seek treatment. So, a pilot program like this is extremely important.”

Bishop added that because people are not institutionalized in hospitals, something that has not happened for around 20 years, there needs to be a new model to treat mental health, and thanked Cobb for bringing the bill forward.

“This is an important project,” Bishop said. “We fully support this. Hope you’ll vote it up. It’s the right thing to do, and it will hopefully lead to more pilot programs, or once this pilot program is proven successful, then we’ll have a plethora of more facilities and programs around the state to help serve this important population.”

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