In the News

Rep. Brittany Pettersen is reupping her push to allow new parents to vote by proxy in the House, centering the issue ahead of the 120th Congress after the same bipartisan effort fizzled last year.

The Colorado Democrat and a bipartisan group of lawmakers will make the case for brand new moms and dads to vote remotely on House bills at a House Rules Committee member day hearing Wednesday morning, she said during an interview Tuesday in her office. Currently, no form of proxy voting is available for any House lawmaker, including new parents.

“I am the 13th voting member to give birth while serving,” Pettersen, who had her second child in early 2025, said. “That is wild that that number is so low, but it’s not a coincidence. It’s because this place was not made for people like me.”

Less than two years ago, Pettersen flew with her newborn baby to vote against a framework for Republicans’ signature tax-and-spending bill — and her son, Sam, became the first baby ever held during a House floor speech. Pettersen and other Democratic and Republican lawmakers, many of them young parents, were unsuccessful in trying to secure a vote on the rule change due to some conservative hardliners’ opposition.

They’ll face an easier road in 2027 if Democrats retake the chamber, as likely speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), now House minority leader, supports proxy voting for new parents. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), a former constitutional lawyer, helped file a lawsuit in 2020 to counter House Democrats’ allowance of proxy voting during the pandemic. He’s since argued against carve outs to in-person voting rules.

“I am hopeful that Hakeem Jeffries will be the speaker, and grateful that, you know, that he is supportive of this issue,” Pettersen said. “And even if we’re not in control, who knows if Speaker Johnson will still be in leadership, as well?”

“Going into a new Congress, no matter if it’s Democrat or Republican controlled, we’re going to still make sure that this is highlighted as priority changes that need to happen,” she added.

The Rules Committee will hold the public meeting Wednesday morning, allowing lawmakers to testify about the House procedures they believe should change next year.

The chamber adopts a package of rules at the start of each Congress — usually with few changes, though there are often sticking points to be negotiated. Pettersen’s comments this week indicate that proxy voting for new parents will continue to be central to rules negotiations as the new Congress gavels in.

Pettersen and many of her allies support a three-month proxy voting allowance for new parents, which could begin before childbirth for pregnant lawmakers who have complications or aren’t able to travel close to their due date. She said she’d support the provision for adoptions and surrogacy, as well. Still, she said she’d be open to working with leadership on what exactly the rule language would look like.

Lawmakers have discussed adding remote identity verification methods similar to those used in the military to ensure proxy voting isn’t abused, Pettersen said.

Besides proxy voting, other potential rules changes debated Wednesday could offer a preview of tough fights to come for either party. Recent congresses, for example, have adopted different thresholds of members needed to trigger a “motion to vacate” vote, essentially recalling the speaker. One single lawmaker was long able to call such a vote, until then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) raised the threshold to require more members of the majority to force a referendum on her.

Ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in 2023 lowered the threshold back to one in exchange for a select few conservative rebels’ votes to make him speaker. The same dissidents used the maneuver less than a year later to fire McCarthy. House Republicans later negotiated the threshold up to nine members, hoping to avoid another ouster. It’s an issue Democrats will also have to weigh if they retake the majority in November.