Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the head of the House Democratic Caucus, said Democrats won’t participate in the “vote pairing” strategy advanced by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a way to kill a push for proxy voting for young parents.
“This is a fake and phony effort,” Aguilar told reporters Tuesday. “Democrats won't participate in this. We won't be voting for the rule. We won't be engaging in this pairing effort."
“It's a complete show.”
GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.) thrust the issue of proxy voting for new parents into the spotlight when she filed a discharge petition forcing legislation to allow it to the floor against the wishes of Republican leaders.
But Luna came under intense pressure from fellow Republicans who accused her of freezing floor action — and holding up President Trump’s domestic agenda in the process — after Johnson went to unusual lengths to block the effort.
Johnson had cut a deal with Luna over the weekend, under which she would drop her demand for proxy voting and accept a system of “vote pairing” in its place.
Under the arrangement, pregnant lawmakers and new mothers working from home could coordinate with members in Washington who were planning to vote on the opposite side of an issue. If they could find such a member to agree to abstain from voting on the floor, it would cancel out the absence of the young mothers.
“If we truly want a younger Congress … these are the changes that need to happen,” Luna said in praising the compromise.
Practically speaking, however, vote pairing is likely to have no effect on the outcome of floor votes, while denying young parents influence over the fate of legislation. The Democratic co-sponsors of the proxy vote legislation — Reps. Brittany Pettersen (Colo.) and Sara Jacobs (Calif.) — rejected the Johnson-Luna compromise out of hand.
Aguilar said Johnson offered vote pairing as a desperate effort to unfreeze the floor so Republicans can move the budget blueprint governing Trump’s tax cuts and broader domestic agenda. He also vowed that Democrats would continue pressing for proxy voting when they get the chance.
“This was a pretty modest bill — 12 weeks right after childbirth seems like the bare minimum that we can do to help support young families, like Rep. Pettersen and Rep. Luna,” he said. “It's unfortunate that Rep. Luna is walking away from the bipartisanship that we had in this effort."
