President Trump on Thursday threw his support behind a bipartisan effort to allow proxy voting for new parents in Congress, dealing a major blow to Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempts to kill the measure.
“You’re having a baby, you should be able to call in and vote,” Mr. Trump told reporters flying to Florida with him aboard Air Force One. “I’m in favor of that.”
The president’s endorsement of the plan came after he spoke with Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, who has been pushing for a resolution that would allow lawmakers to vote remotely for up to 12 weeks after the birth of a child. There is no parental leave from voting for congressional lawmakers.
Ms. Luna has been leading the charge to allow proxy voting, initially for new moms and now for all new parents, since she gave birth last year. She used a maneuver called a discharge petition — a demand signed by 218 members of the House, the majority of the body — to force consideration of the bipartisan measure to change the chamber’s rules.
Earlier this week, Mr. Johnson tried unsuccessfully to block the resolution from reaching the House floor. He then canceled votes for the remainder of the week, prolonging a battle it’s not clear he can win and effectively freezing the House floor until the issue is resolved.
Mr. Trump’s late entry into the ongoing fight was a rare instance in which he and Mr. Johnson were not on the same side of an issue.
As he scrambled to get in the president’s ear and change his mind, Mr. Johnson offered the latest reminder of how dependent he is on the president’s support to keep Republicans in line.
In this case, the speaker appeared to have fumbled by allowing Ms. Luna to present her case to Mr. Trump before he could warn him about his concerns about the measure and his opposition.
Mr. Johnson said he had spoken to Mr. Trump immediately after he gave his support to the effort and explained his issues with opening the door to remote voting.
Mr. Johnson has argued that proxy voting is unacceptable and unconstitutional, even though the Supreme Court refused to take up a lawsuit led by Republicans challenging pandemic-era proxy voting rules in the House.
He has described any accommodation that allows members to vote without being at the Capitol, no matter how narrow, as a slippery slope. He expressed concern that any form of proxy voting fundamentally changes the nature of Congress, which exists to bring lawmakers together for discussion, debate and ultimately legislative action.
Mr. Johnson told reporters that the president was receptive to his concerns, hinting that the conversation wasn’t over and that Mr. Trump may weigh in again on the issue before the House returns to Washington next week.
On social media, Ms. Luna thanked the president “for supporting a pro-family Congress.”
She added: “To be clear this is something ONLY to be used in an emergency to ensure that constituents are represented in Washington DC.”
