House Democrats proved on Tuesday night that attendance in the chamber does matter when it comes to contentious legislation, bolstering the bipartisan push for proxy voting, on which leadership doesn’t seem inclined to budge.
Earlier on Tuesday, absences among the Democrats gave Republicans a three- or possibly four-vote margin to adopt the budget resolution, with leaders confident they could move it over the finish line despite holdouts.
However, Republicans quickly saw that cushion disappear after Democrats called all their members to the floor, including those absent for health reasons or maternity leave, forcing the GOP to pull the resolution temporarily while pleading with hard-liners to offer their support.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), who was absent for all February votes, reemerged on Tuesday night to vote against the budget resolution after Democratic leadership pushed for full attendance. Wilson’s office did not explain why she missed 20 votes in a row.
Among the other returnees were Reps. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) and Kevin Mullin (D-CA). Pettersen came onto the floor with her newborn child, whom she gave birth to last month. She is the 14th member to give birth while serving in Congress.
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“I rise today with my newborn, Sam, who’s just 4 weeks old,” Pettersen said during a floor speech after the vote on Tuesday night. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t given the opportunity to vote remotely after giving birth, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from being here to represent my constituents and vote ‘no’ on this disastrous Republican budget proposal.”
During Pettersen’s speech, her son briefly cried while she rocked him — and she is not the first new parent to bring her child onto the floor. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) is frequently seen with her son throughout the House hallways, telling the New York Times last year that she did so because she didn’t have child care.
Pettersen and Luna are two of the four lawmakers leading the push for proxy voting for new parents, an initiative that spurned last Congress that Republican leaders declined to pursue.
However, leadership is now under a microscope after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who has not supported the push for proxy voting, used Rep. David Schweikert’s (R-AZ) card to vote for the Arizona congressman as the final vote on the budget resolution.
Schweikert handed him the card after a conversation with the speaker and was still in the chamber at the time Johnson used his card. The Washington Examiner reached out to the speaker’s office for comment.
The move came at an inopportune time, just a few weeks after Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) faced backlash for proxy voting. Donalds was filming for HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher in California on Friday, the same day his voting card was used to cast two votes on the House floor on a motion to recommit and passage of the Protecting American Energy Production Act.
Republicans have been anti-proxy voting for some time, after nixing the pandemic-era measure that allowed for proxy voting during 2021 and 2022. Former Speaker and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy was anti-proxy voting and pushed for the end of the measure after the 2022 midterm elections.
“Sounds like he violated his own rules,” one House Democrat said of Johnson using Schweikert’s card. “Even though Pettersen had to come all the way here with a baby.”
The $1.7 trillion omnibus that passed in 2022 due to proxy voting under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is under review by the courts after Republicans in Texas brought the case against the Justice Department during the Biden administration.
Luna had pushed for proxy voting to be included in the rules package voted on by the House at the beginning of the new Congress in January, but she was unsuccessful.
She told the Washington Examiner that she filed a special rule this week to call up Pettersen’s discharge petition for proxy voting.
While the bipartisan push only applies to proxy voting for new parents, several members on both sides of the aisle facing health problems would benefit from having a proxy voter on key pieces of legislation.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), diagnosed with cancer in April, was the sole Democrat absent from the vote on the budget resolution on Tuesday. Other than casting a vote for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for speaker on Jan. 3, Grijalva has been marked as “not voting” since the start of the new Congress. Before winning reelection in 2024, Grijalva said he would retire and not run to keep his seat in 2026.
Mullin, who has been hospitalized for over a week after three surgeries, a blood clot, and an infection, came into the chamber with a walker. Other than Tuesday, Mullin has not cast a vote since Jan. 23, and he headed back to California after voting against the budget resolution. Pettersen also did not vote on Tuesday.
Voting attendance has been under scrutiny in recent months, particularly after it was noted that former Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger had not been seen on Capitol Hill since November 2024 and had not cast a vote since July 2024. Her absence was also part of a larger conversation regarding term limits and older political leaders clinging to power for too long.
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The late Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee had a 43% voting rate before she died in July following her battle with pancreatic cancer. Before the death of California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle had called on her to resign and pushed for term limits.
According to Roll Call, the rate of House lawmakers casting votes was 94.7% in 2024, a drop from a peak of nearly 97.8% — due to proxy voting.
Lauren Green contributed to this report.
