Speaker Johnson cuts deal with Rep. Luna over parental proxy voting

Spokesman Mike Johnson and GOP reporter Anna Paulina Luna say they have made a deal to end the fight for proxy vote for new parents, which will reopen the floor of the house after nearly a week of legislative paralysis.

Republican chamber leaders will formalize “pairing votes”, a procedure that allows a member that is absent during a vote to coordinate with a current member on the other side of the question to compensate for the absence, said many sources familiar with the transaction to ABC NEWS.

For example, the procedure in this case would allow a new mother who is absent for the vote to the home to unite with a current legislator who votes against her position to form a “couple”.

Some logistics of this transaction remain unclear, including how it will be applied.

Pairing votes – which is a rare practice in congress – is certainly not equivalent to the remote vote, but allows to compensate for the absence. But the vote of the absent member is not recorded in the ratio of a recorded vote.

The vote pairing process was used in 2018, when the Senate voted to confirm the justice of the Supreme Court Bret Cavano. At that time, Senator Lisa Murkovski, R-Alaska, who said he would vote against Cavano, paired her voice with Senator Steve Dines of Montana so that their votes were canceled.

Johnson set out the specifics of the agreement of the GOP members’ conference on Sunday afternoon, sources said.

In the light of the deal, sources said Rep. The moon will not trigger her bilateral petition for discharge – which has 218 signatures – to allow mothers and fathers to vote for up to 12 weeks after birth.

“President Johnson and I have reached an agreement and formalize a procedure called” Live/Dead Dairing ” – to return to the 1800s – for the entire conference to be used when it cannot be physically attended by: new parents, injured, emergencies,” Luna reported in a statement.

Luna thanked President Donald Trump for the “support” of new mothers. “If we really want the Congress Pro-Monthood, these are the changes that need to happen,” she added.

Other members are possible – including any Democrat who has signed the petition – to call and to force action on a measure of a reporter Luna. But it will probably fail if the Republicans adhere to the vote pairing agreement.

Johnson is still looking for ways to increase accessibility for new mothers in the congress, such as adding a room from the floor to the nursing mothers’ home, sources said.