9 Republicans Vote With Dems in Defeat for Johnson

House Speaker Mike Johnson endured a decisive defeat Tuesday after he staged an unusually aggressive effort to quash a proposal for new parents in Congress to able to vote by proxy rather than in person, as they care for newborns. Nine of his own Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting his plan, 206-222, in a dramatic vote.

• It was a high-profile setback for the speaker, who rarely exercises the power of his gavel in such a determined way as he did trying to prevent the bipartisan plan from two new mothers—Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, the AP reports. But Johnson, like GOP leaders before him, rails against proxy voting

• The outcome registered a sizable win for the moms—and dads and others who supported them—who showed no signs of dropping their campaign as they force the House to consider their proxy-voting plan, which 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.
• 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.
• "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."

• It was the first time in modern House history that the leadership had taken the extraordinary step to try to halt a discharge petition when it's this far along. Next steps are uncertain.
• After the defeat for Johnson, House leadership canceled votes for the rest of the week, the Hill reports. "It's very unfortunate," the speaker said. "We'll regroup and come back, and we'll have to do this again." Sources tell CNN that Johnson's team is considering putting pressure on lawmakers by linking President Trump's agenda to the measure to block proxy voting.
• Luna, who is among the House's more conservative lawmakers, is known 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.

(More House of Representatives stories.)