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By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON(Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday took a step towards allowing members who are new parents to cast their ballots by proxy, overriding an effort by the chamber's Republican leadership to block the change.
The bipartisan measure under consideration would allow colleagues to vote on behalf of a member for up to 12 weeks after the birth or adoption of a child, using a procedure that the chamber's 435 members adopted during the COVID pandemic.
The push is being led by new parents Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna from Florida and Democratic Representative Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, who has traveled to Washington three times with her newborn baby this year to vote in the narrowly divided chamber.
"It is unfathomable that in 2025 we have not modernized Congress to address these very unique challenges that members face -- these life events -- where our voices should still be heard, our constituents should still be represented," Pettersen said on the House floor, delivered while holding her crying 9-week-old son Sam in her arms.
Republicans' narrow 218-213 majority has made every vote critical in the first weeks of President Donald Trump's term.
The chamber's Republican leadership held a procedural vote on Tuesday intended to block the change, which failed in a 206-222 vote with nine Republicans joining all Democrats in voting to support the change.
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, who has questioned the constitutionality of proxy voting, called it “a very disappointing result.”
Currently, there is no alternative method for casting votes other than coming into the House chamber. There is also no maternity or paternity leave for lawmakers.
“Put simply, members of Congress need to show up for work,” Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the Republican chair of the rules committee that pushed the procedural block.
“It will take only a slight reconfiguration of the deck chairs in this body to put Democrats back in charge and put us on a path to proxy voting without limitation."
If the change goes forward, it would only apply to the House.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)
