Parents Across the Aisle Are Fighting for a Virtual Vote in Congress

When Colorado Rep. Brittany Pettersen walked onto the House floor to vote this February, she wasn’t alone—cradled in her arms was her one-month-old son, Sam. Still recovering from childbirth, Pettersen faced an impossible choice: prioritize her healing and her newborn’s care or show up for her constituents. She chose both—and now, she’s working to ensure no lawmaker ever has to make that same decision again.

“Congress makes no accommodations for new parents,” Pettersen said in a statement shortly after. “While I’m recovering and taking care of my newborn at this critical time, it’s incredibly unfair that my constituents will not have a voice in Congress until I am physically able to return to Washington. No Member should have to choose between caring for their newborn and representing their constituents.”

In partnership with Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna—one of just 14 members of Congress who’ve given birth while serving—Pettersen introduced a bipartisan resolution that would allow members of Congress to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks following the birth of a child.

“We’re changing the way that Congress works,” Pettersen said, standing outside the Capitol steps with Luna and her 6-week-old in tow on the day of the two introduced the legislation. “We’re making sure that moms and parents have a voice.”

But the road to reform hasn’t been smooth. House Speaker Mike Johnson quickly moved to block the resolution, calling proxy voting “a slippery and unconstitutional slope.” In an attempt to kill the bill, Johnson embedded language into an unrelated rule that would have tabled the resolution and prevented future parental proxy carveouts.

That move backfired. In a striking show of bipartisan solidarity, eight Republicans broke with party leadership and joined Luna and all 213 Democrats to vote against the rule.

“While Speaker Johnson decided to not move forward with our resolution – despite bipartisan support – we refused to back down. I’m so grateful for all the people who stepped up and helped us get one step closer to modernizing Congress," Pettersen said in response to the legislation’s introduction. "Sam is only 6 weeks old, but he got to be a part of changing hearts and minds and addressing a barrier that prevents regular people from serving in Congress.”

While the future of the proxy voting resolution still hangs in the balance, one thing is clear: leaders from across the aisle and beyond are beginning to recognize that parents deserve to be supported, not sidelined. “We don’t have hundreds of pregnant women,” said a New Jersey Republican who joined Democrats to vote down the rule, speaking to Roll Call. “So now and then, a woman gets pregnant and then gives birth, wants to spend a little special time with her newborn baby, there’s nothing wrong with that… I mean, it’s the 21st century.”