File photo of Mike Johnson and Anna Paulina Luna. ABC News/Getty.
The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna have reached a deal on remote voting for new parents, ending a week long paralysis of the House. ABC News. Representative Luna (R-Florida) had created a bipartisan discharge petition that would allow remote voting for up to 12 weeks for new parents. She will no longer attempt to use the petition to force the vote after a deal was made with Johnson. Instead of remote voting, a process that allows the person who isn't able to vote to "pair" with a member of the house that is voting the other way on the bill. The person paired with the one on leave would simply not vote, which would in effect cancel out the votes. Vote pairing has been used in the past and though it isn't the equivalent of remote voting it would end an impasse in Congress. It is unclear how vote pairing would be enforced and if it would survive a vote that was very close.
My Comment:
And with that, one of the most embarrassing inter-Republican feuds is at an end. I wrote last week how angry I was at both sides for making this an issue at an absolutely critical time for the party. And for something that the average voter has absolutely no interest in! Does it matter at all for you if a member of congress votes remotely after having a baby or if they vote in person? Absolutely not!
I was critical of both sides of the argument here. I have almost zero sympathy for Luna as I think new parents should show up at Congress. It's a low intensity job and they have free child care. Hell, they could bring their babies in with them to vote! And there is very good reason to not allow remote voting under any circumstances. Folks would use it to their own advantage to campaign when they are supposed to be working.
Johnson, on the other hand, was a fool to let it get this bad. This kind of deal could have been made before and the fact that he faced a rebellion from members of his own party show that he did not do a good job at whipping his party. He let things get out of control and it embarrassed himself and his party.
I am guessing that President Trump had a lot to do with this situation being resolved. Trump came out over the weekend supporting Luna and I think that was a clear message to both sides to come to deal as fast as possible. I don't think it was just Johnson getting pressured, Luna probably was as well, just behind the scenes. Trump wants his legislative agenda passed and this stunt wasted most of a week, so I am guessing that him commenting publicly was essentially an order to come to an agreement.
Vote pairing seems like a pretty good solution. Having someone from the opposite side of a vote sit out means that nothing really changes and folks can stay home with their kids if they need to. It's sort of an elegant solution to a problem that didn't seem likely to be solved otherwise.
The real question happens if the vote is close enough that it will pass or fail if someone goes back on the vote pair deal. Given how close congress is right now, such a situation could happen soon, if not in this term, than in the next. How do you enforce that, no, you have to do this? It's a real question that should be answered.
Either way, with this roadblock out of the way, we should see some actual votes again from Congress. The Senate has been busy passing their part of Trump's agenda and now the House should do the same thing. Critical legislation, like the No Rogue Rulings Act and the Safeguarding Voter Eligibility Act, along with making the Trump tax cuts permanent, should happen now and should be some good news to offset the tariff hysteria. I am glad that this drama is at its end.
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