Bitter feud between Speaker Johnson and Rep. Luna over remote voting for new parents roils House GOP

A bitter feud between Mike Johnson and fellow Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is roiling the House GOP as multiple lawmakers privately accuse the speaker of being anti-family and mull voting against him in a floor vote Tuesday.

A bitter feud between Mike Johnson and fellow Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is roiling the House GOP as multiple lawmakers privately accuse the speaker of being anti-family and mull voting against him in a floor vote Tuesday. Johnson and Luna have battled for months over the Florida congresswoman’s push to allow proxy voting in Congress for parents of newborns – an effort that began after she gave birth last year and was unable to vote for weeks. But the institutionalist Republican speaker has fiercely rejected that push, forcing Luna to choose the more contentious approach of working with Democrats. Now, Johnson and his leadership team are facing a rebellion within their own party as they scramble to kill Luna’s measure before it can come to the floor, where it is almost certain to succeed. Several GOP lawmakers are privately weighing Tuesday whether to buck Johnson in a high-profile floor vote. “We’re not going to let it come to the floor,” Johnson told reporters when asked about the discharge petition. The Louisiana Republican said he’s spoken “repeatedly” with Luna about the matter — including a meeting in his office earlier Tuesday morning — but they have been unable to find a path forward. “The speaker’s job is to protect the institution,” Johnson said. Johnson’s stance is drawing complaints from across his GOP conference, many of whom see his position as anti-family in a Congress that includes more and more young parents. The GOP speaker has argued that proxy voting is unconstitutional, though he personally took part in the practice while it was allowed under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Covid pandemic.