Republicans talk compromise on remote voting for new moms in Congress

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Apr 4, 2025

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Congressional Republicans on Friday were negotiating a possible compromise to allow remote voting for new mothers after President Donald Trump urged them to find a solution to the dispute that threatened to derail his broader legislative agenda.

In a major climbdown, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was haggling over terms of a solution to a dispute with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., over her bipartisan proposal to allow lawmakers who recently became parents to vote remotely by proxy.

“We discussed limiting the vote to just new moms who cannot physically travel in event of emergency etc. This is smart,” Luna tweeted.

Johnson deleted his own previous tweet that took a hard line on the dispute and suggested Luna and other proponents of the family-friendly reform measure could disrupt Trump’s larger proposals for tax and spending cuts.

The politics of the remote voting proposal shifted dramatically Thursday when Trump effectively sided with Luna and slapped down Johnson.

“I’m going to let the speaker make the decision, but I like the idea,” Trump told reporters. “If you’re having a baby, I think you should be able to call in and vote. I’m in favor of that.”

Luna’s initial proposal would have allowed all new parents, both mothers and fathers, to vote remotely for three months before and after the birth of a new child.

A rejiggered plan might limit remote voting to only new mothers, not fathers, and impose some additional conditions such as applying the rule only to those new moms with physical issues preventing them from voting in person at the Capitol.

It’s unclear if Democrats might object to those limitations but some of the handful of Republicans who broke ranks to back Luna signaled it would be an acceptable compromise.

“C’mon let’s actually be pro-family ... the Republic will survive this minor change,” tweeted Long Island Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., a father of three.

“Thanks @realDonaldTrump for supporting this common-sense, pro-family, pro-life measure championed by @realannapaulina!” added GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents a swing district in New York's Westchester County.

Johnson might also need to deal with opposition from far right-wing Republicans who believe all remote voting is unconstitutional, even though most of them took advantage of the practice when it was permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regardless of whether Johnson can resolve the remote voting dispute, the whole matter amounts to a significant black eye for him. The House leader had enjoyed a string of political victories, especially wrangling all GOP lawmakers except one to vote in favor of a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown.

With only a narrow seven-vote majority, Johnson needs to keep his famously fractious Republican caucus nearly unanimously unified if he hopes to pass Trump’s sprawling plan for massive tax and spending cuts.

Almost all GOP lawmakers say they support the broad strokes of Trump’s plan, but some factions want much larger spending cuts, while others want smaller cuts that would not impact their constituents as much.

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