LUNA’S PROXY VOTING BATTLE HITS HOUSE FLOOR WITH GOP DIVIDED

Luna, along with Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Kevin Kiley (R-CA), Nick LaLota (R-NY), Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), Max Miller (R-OH), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Greg Steube (R-FL), and Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA), were among the Republicans who voted against the rule. With a two-seat majority, Johnson and House GOP leadership could not rally enough support, and the measure ultimately failed.

This is the first rule failure under Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in the 119th Congress. Voting against the procedural hurdle, which dictates floor speeches and amendment processes, has often been weaponized by the Freedom Caucus and other hard-line conservatives to push back against leadership-backed legislation.

A rule vote almost failed last week when a select group of Freedom Caucus members threatened to hold up floor proceedings if leadership allowed Luna’s petition to come to the floor. The “backroom deals” pushed Luna to leave the hard-liner caucus on Monday.

GOP leaders began working with hard-liners on the Rules Committee shortly after their demonstration on the floor to try and force language into the rules package to kill Luna’s bill. During a lengthy Rules Committee hearing on Tuesday morning, Democrats accused the GOP of hypocrisy, pointing to Republicans, without newborns, voting by proxy when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) permitted the practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the floor, both Luna and co-author Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) spoke against the rule. Pettersen, who gave birth earlier this year, brought her newborn son to the floor to speak. She’s been flying back and forth between Colorado and Washington for some time to vote on contentious legislation. Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-MA) blasted Republicans for seeking to kill the bipartisan bill.

“What the hell is the big deal? You think the world is coming to an end?” McGovern said.

Despite efforts to kill her bill, Luna alerted ahead of the 1:30 p.m. rule vote that she would bring forward her petition as privileged, which means leadership has to bring it up within two legislative days. If the rule had passed, the bill would be immediately dead, and it would not be allowed to come to the floor.

The Florida congresswoman has been vocal about her discharge petition, insisting “I’m right, he’s wrong” when referring to Johnson’s opinion that proxy voting is unconstitutional. A number of Republicans signed onto the discharge petition or were co-sponsors of the bill, but only a handful of them voted no on Tuesday’s rule.

Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), who signed the petition but didn’t cosponsor the bill, brought his toddler son onto the House floor during the vote to protest leadership’s efforts to kill it. During the 15-round marathon vote to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker, Hunt flew between Texas and Washington 16 times because his son was ill in the NICU. He ultimately voted in favor of the rule.

LaLota, who did not sign the petition or cosponsor the bill, signaled he would vote “no” on the rule ahead of time.

“Rep. Luna followed the rules and deserves a vote on the merits of her proposal,” he told multiple outlets. “Members who oppose her proposal should negotiate with her to amend it or persuade 218 members to vote no, rather than deny her a vote on the merits.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said the rule language change is just “adding extra divisiveness on this divisive topic” and disagreed with Johnson’s arguments.

NEW PARENT PROXY VOTING SETS UP GOP SCHISM AS LUNA THREATENS LEADERSHIP ‘HARDBALL’

“I think the apocalyptic predictions that the other side makes, the other side being those who don’t want proxy voting, about this issue are just not based in reality,” Crenshaw said earlier in the day. “It’s a slippery slope, fallacy argument.”

With the rule voting failing, all legislation scheduled for a floor vote this week is effectively in limbo. That means the other bills tied to the rule, including one on election integrity and another on reining in district court judges, will be stalled until the Rules Committee can bring forward a procedural measure that can pass.