9 Home Republicans defied GOP management on Tuesday and opposed an effort to dam a invoice instituting proxy voting for brand new mother and father from coming to the ground, halting key legislative motion within the chamber.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) the 218 signatures — together with from 11 Republicans — wanted to efficiently execute a discharge petition and permit her to power a vote on permitting new mother and father to vote by proxy.
However Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has argued that the observe is unconstitutional and, because of this, the leadership-controlled Home Guidelines Committee inserted language that sought to dam the hassle right into a procedural invoice that may have arrange consideration for 2 unrelated GOP priorities: to restrict the facility of federal district judges to impose nationwide injunctions and to require proof of citizenship to vote.
That transfer, nonetheless, angered Republicans who supported the proxy voting push, in addition to those that are cautious about management derailing one of many few rarely-successful instruments to avoid management. And so they have been undeterred by the prospect of being labeled saboteurs of a Trump-supported agenda.
The Home broke 206-222 on a vote to advance a rule.
Listed below are the 9 Republicans who defied management to vote in opposition to it.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.): Burchett, who is usually a thorn within the aspect of Home GOP management on main votes, had signed Luna’s discharge petition to power a vote on proxy voting.
Burchett final week alleged that management recommended they’d convey up a few of his payments if he helped defeat Luna’s push.
“I was like, voting against pregnant women? Are y’all crazy?” Burchett mentioned.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.): Kiley opposed the rule though he didn’t signal the discharge petition. A spokesperson mentioned in a press release: “Rep. Kiley doesn’t agree with how the matter of the discharge petition was handled. It’s wrong to try to cancel a vote that is required by the rules of the House.”
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.): LaLota opposed the rule though they didn’t signal Luna’s discharge petition. The New York Republican introduced his place forward of the vote, pointing to the foundations governing discharge petitions.
After the vote, LaLota advised reporters: “I’m a process guy, we should follow the rules.”
“We all agreed to the rules months and months ago that said if a member got 218 signatures for a discharge petition that the issue would see the light of day,” he continued. “And that somebody tried to use a different rule to subvert that member’s good, hard work, to me is something I couldn’t support.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.): Lawler was one in every of 11 Republicans who signed Luna’s discharge petition. He welcomed a second daughter throughout his first time period in Congress in 2024.
In a press release, Lawler mentioned his vote was as a lot of a protest of management’s hardline ways because it was concerning the household difficulty. He slammed the “unprecedented move by leadership to undermine the rights of individual members to bring forth a discharge petition with the support of a majority of the whole House.”
“Regardless of how one feels about a discharge petition, this is a step that drastically limits the power of individual members and vests it almost entirely in leadership,” Lawler mentioned.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.): Luna, who had her first baby months into her first time period, had pushed for months to permit proxy voting for brand new mothers and led the discharge petition effort. On the steps after the vote, she mentioned: “Never bet against a Luna.”
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.): Mackenzie was the one first-term Republican member to vote in opposition to the rule, and is a cosponsor of the decision to permit proxy voting for brand new mother and father.
Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio): Miller famous that he’s the daddy of a one-year-old woman when explaining his vote and that “in the first weeks of her life there were some complications.”
“I can not imagine a mother, who has spent 9 months going through the wringer, being told that you can’t be with your infant only because you are one of 435 people. We are the pro-life, pro-family party,” Miller mentioned in a press release.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.): Steube led his personal profitable discharge petition within the final Congress to power consideration of his invoice to present tax reduction for losses brought on by pure disasters — laws that turned legislation in December.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.): Van Drew, the Democrat-turned-Republican, signed Luna’s discharge petition to power a vote on proxy voting for brand new mother and father. Requested final week if he would stay in help of the hassle regardless of management’s opposition, he mentioned he was sticking with Luna.
“I gave her my commitment and my word,” he advised The Hill.
Mike Lillis contributed.
