With the House of Representatives at Punto, President Mike Johnson refuses to withdraw from his strong opposition to allow new parents in Congress to vote remotely.
“I do not admit in something that I think is unconstitutional. I can’t. I made an oath to maintain the Constitution. So we will find a path through this. We are working on that,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “I talked to everyone who voted against the rule, and we will solve it. So, we have time to do it and those conversations continue.”
Earlier this week, nine Republicans put themselves on the side of the Democrats to torpedo a procedure rule that included the language to kill the high bipartisan request of the Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna on the vote of the new legislators.
The vote has thrown the camera with uprooted and paralyzed the camera, leaving Johnson to find a way to break the dead end. The vote also questioned Johnson’s ability to control most of the thin Republicans.
Republican leaders of the House of Representatives, including Johnson, had said they would take the unprecedented step to block Luna’s request on vote by power, which gives mothers and parents and the ability to vote remotely up to 12 weeks after the birth of a child.
The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, attends an event of the month of the history of women in the East Room of the White House, on March 26, 2025 in Washington.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
After the vote, Johnson said he failed: “We cannot have more measures on the floor this week.” The rule that legislators voted included a language to block the vote by power, as well as other laws.
“The reason I said that the agenda was taken during the week is because it was, all in a rule. We could have directed Save’s law, but the rest should have been done in a different rule. And I had a large group of Republicans of the House of Representatives who did not want to support a rule until we took care of the power vote situation,” he said.
Johnson said he is “actively working” to accommodate young mothers who serve in Congress.
“While I understand the pure motivations of the few defenders of republican power votes, I simply cannot support the change they are looking for,” Johnson wrote in an X post on Wednesday. “Yesterday’s procedural vote was our effort to advance in the important legislative agenda of President Trump while disabled a high request that would force the vote of power and open a dangerous Pandora box for the institution.”
“Allowing the vote by power of a category of members would open the door to many others, and finally would result in a remote vote that would damage the functioning of our deliberative body and reduce the critical role of the legislative branch,” he added.
Johnson said he wants a room for mothers to take care of right side of the house despite the fact that there is currently one in the basement of the Capitol. He said that leaders are also seeking to allow the use of government money so that members will fly to their baby to DC with their mothers and fathers.
“We want to accommodate the mothers who want to serve in Congress, and we are the Profamilia party, so we will do it, but we cannot do something that violates the Constitution or destroys the institution to which it serves,” he said.
