On Tuesday, nine House Republicans joined Democrats in voting against Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempt to prevent a GOP member from permitting new parent legislators to vote by proxy.
House Republican leaders added wording to a procedural bill that would almost kill Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s proxy-voting suggestion, which is set to come to the floor later this week. By use of a discharge petition, Luna had evaded party officials.
Eight Republicans joined Luna to oppose that 222-206 vote.
Approving the “rule,” as the legislation is called, would have shelved the discharge petition and prevented future such motions, causing Luna and other Republicans to line up against it. Luna and eleven other House Republicans had signed onto the discharge petition to compel examination of the proxy-voting proposal.
House Republicans have been stirred by the plan; Luna chose to depart the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus because of the conflict.
GOP leaders have decried the proxy-voting plan as unlawful; conservative hard-liners have backed their stance.
Tuesday afternoon’s vote loss, however, raises questions about the remainder of the House GOP’s agenda this week. Apart from defeating Luna’s plan, the regulation would have set up the remainder of the legislative agenda, including a highly monitored proposal to control federal judges opposing President Donald Trump.