Speaker Johnson moves to stop young parents in Congress from voting remotely

House Speaker Mike Johnson is wielding the power of his gavel to squash a bipartisan resolution

that would allow new parents in Congress to vote remotely. Johnson is sending the resolution through the Rules Committee

in an attempt to stop rank-and-file members from bringing it up for a vote despite his objections

The resolution was introduced by Congresswoman Annapolina Luna, Sarah Jacobs, and Brittany Peterson

Supporters say there are more young parents than ever in Congress, and if they're going to grow their families

they have to be able to keep working with an infant. House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes the bill

and he and his leadership team are being accused by fellow Republicans of making threats and playing

hardball politics to keep it from being approved. Let me tell you they are threatening members right now

and that is unacceptable, but I understand his concern, and I also understand that there were

frontline members that wanted to support this, and they were also threatened. So you're going to

threaten the majority because we are trying to advocate for us to have a voice in Washington I would call the question what does that say about your leadership Speaker Johnson won bring the bill up for a vote because he believes it unconstitutional So members started a discharge petition which allows the rank and file to

overrule the speaker and force a vote. They got 218 signatures from every political leaning

which is more than enough. Proxy voting began during COVID. Members were allowed to authorize

another member to enter their vote on their behalf. How Speaker Johnson

says that should not happen again. This is a deliberative body. You cannot deliberate with your colleagues

if you're out somewhere else. Here's the problem. If you create a proxy vote opportunity just for

young parents, mothers and the fathers in those situations, then where is the limiting principle

Luna hinted to reporters that she was prepared to bring her resolution forward as soon as this week

Now the future of the measure could be decided by Johnson's effort to sink it in committee

I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News. For more reporting, download the SAN app