Congressional Republicans Friday have been negotiating a doable compromise to permit distant voting for brand spanking new moms after President Trump urged them to discover a resolution to the dispute that threatened to derail his broader legislative agenda.
In a serious climbdown, Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson was haggling over phrases of an answer to a dispute with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) over her bipartisan proposal to permit lawmakers who lately turned dad and mom 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 personal earlier tweet that took a tough line on the dispute and prompt Luna and different proponents of the family-friendly reform measure might disrupt Trump’s bigger proposals for tax and spending cuts.
However the Home Republican chief later solid doubt on studies of a brewing compromise on the problem that’s divisive amongst GOP lawmakers, denouncing all distant voting as a “Pandora’s box.”
The politics of the distant voting proposal shifted dramatically Thursday when Trump successfully sided with Luna and slapped down Johnson.
“I’m going to let the Speaker make the decision, but I like the idea,” Trump instructed 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 preliminary proposal would have allowed all new dad and mom, each moms and dads, to vote remotely for 3 months earlier than and after the beginning of a brand new little one.
A rejiggered plan would possibly restrict distant voting to solely new moms, not fathers, and impose some further circumstances corresponding to making use of the rule solely to these new mothers with bodily points stopping them from voting in individual on the Capitol.
It’s unclear if Democrats would possibly object to these limitations however a few of the handful of Republicans who broke ranks to again Luna signaled it will be a suitable compromise.
“C’mon let’s actually be pro-family… the Republic will survive this minor change,” tweeted Lengthy Island Rep. Nick LaLota (R-New York), a father of three.
AP Photograph/J. Scott Applewhite
Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson in Washington on Tuesday. (AP Photograph/J. Scott Applewhite)
Johnson may also must take care of opposition from far right-wing Republicans who imagine all distant voting is unconstitutional, regardless that most of them took benefit of the apply when it was permitted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
No matter whether or not Johnson can resolve the distant voting dispute, the entire matter quantities to a big black eye for him. The Home chief had loved a string of political victories particularly wrangling all GOP lawmakers besides one to vote in favor of a stopgap spending invoice to avert a authorities shutdown.
With solely a slim seven-vote majority, Johnson must preserve his famously fractious Republican caucus practically unanimously unified if he hopes to cross Trump’s sprawling plan for enormous tax and spending cuts.
Nearly all GOP lawmakers say they help the broad strokes of Trump’s plan, however some factions need a lot bigger spending cuts, whereas others need smaller cuts that may not influence their constituents as a lot.
Initially Revealed: April 4, 2025 at 11:46 AM EDT
