(WASHINGTON) — Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen, who on Tuesday held her newborn son during a speech on the House floor in support of a bipartisan effort to allow proxy voting for new lawmaker parents, said the decision to bring her 9-week-old was “difficult,” but illustrated the need to pass the petition.
“We have the ability in 2025 to make sure that our voices and our constituents’ voices are represented here, even when we have a medical reason for not being able to be here in person,” Pettersen, holding her son Sam, said in an interview on ABC News Live on Wednesday. “You know, this is the way things were done hundreds of years ago, I think that we can accommodate for the new workplace challenges here in Congress to make sure more women and in young families can be represented here now.”
On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers came together over proxy voting for new parents. Nine Republicans joined Democrats to tank a procedural rule that would have blocked a petition to allow new mothers and fathers to vote by proxy.
With her newborn in her arms, the Colorado Democrat on Tuesday spoke in support of a resolution that would allow new parents — both mothers and fathers — the ability to vote by proxy up to 12 weeks after the birth of a child. In her speech — during which Sam cooed, squealed and squeaked — Pettersen pleaded for bipartisan cooperation on a measure that she said addressed life events such as parenthood for lawmakers.
“It was a very difficult decision to fly across the country with Sam, and it’s just a decision that nobody should have to make,” said Pettersen, who added that returning to Washington to work after her son was born prematurely put her in an “impossible” situation where she had to both care for a vulnerable newborn and do her job.
Pettersen is only the 13th member of the House to have given birth while serving in Congress. Fellow new mom, Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna — who had a child in August 2023 — introduced the petition.
The House voted to torpedo the procedural rule that would have blocked Luna’s proxy vote measure — throwing the House into disarray and paralyzing the chamber. The vote also called into question Speaker Mike Johnson’s ability to control Republicans’ razor-thin majority.
House Republican leaders, including Johnson, had said they would take the unprecedented step to block Luna’s petition
After the vote, Johnson said because it failed, “we can’t have any further action on the floor this week.”
Johnson has said proxy voting is unconstitutional and is the start of a slippery slope that could lead to more and more members voting remotely.
Asked by ABC New Live Anchor Diane Macedo about her response to Johnson’s argument, Pettersen said “my message to Speaker Johnson is just let us vote.”
“If we have narrow reasons why people can have their votes represented here if they can’t be here in person, that’s something that we should be able to vote on,” she said on ABC News Live.
Pettersen had stronger words for Johnson after the rule vote, telling ABC News’ Jay O’Brien that her message to the speaker was “don’t f— with moms.”
It’s not the first time Pettersen has brought her son along to a House vote. In February, she brought her son to vote in the House budget blueprint.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller, Jay O’Brien, John Parkinson and Arthur Jones II contributed to this report.
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