Congress
GOP leaders scramble to squelch vote on parental proxy voting
House GOP leaders are racing to head off a vote being pushed by one of their own members on a measure that would allow lawmakers who are new parents to vote by proxy.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has already gathered enough member signatures on a discharge petition to force a vote. But Speaker Mike Johnson, who argues that proxy voting is unconstitutional, is considering several options to prevent it from happening as Luna mulls the way forward.
They include trying to kill the discharge petition in the Rules Committee next week, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter who, like others quoted in this story, were granted anonymity to discuss private talks. Some hard-liners are also floating a more drastic option: changing the House rules to effectively block future discharge petitions this Congress by making the process to trigger a fast-track floor vote much more burdensome, the three people said.
“There aren’t many good options here,” said one GOP lawmaker.
Right now, GOP leaders appear focused on trying to peel away some of the 11 Republicans who joined Luna in signing the discharge petition. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Whip Tom Emmer and others have aggressively whipped members against the effort, according to three GOP lawmakers who have spoken with them.
Luna said Thursday she has been lobbied heavily herself by House Republican leaders to abandon her effort, which would allow for 12 weeks of proxy voting for new parents. She said they offered to bring her bill to the Rules Committee if she would agree to drop the discharge petition, but Luna has so far rejected that deal. She said she heard Republicans on the panel would block it from the floor.
”If you’re going to negotiate, you’re not going to be honest with the negotiations, there is no negotiation,” she said, later adding, “I am not going to destroy democracy by allowing female members to vote when recovering from birth.”
Luna said leaders are also threatening members who are backing her, telling them their bills will not come to the floor and that the party won’t be “helping with fundraising.” She said she was also offered committee assignments she had previously been denied as an enticement to end her proxy-voting push.
One Republican who joined Luna in the discharge effort, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, said “somebody” offered to bring a bill he sponsored to the floor in exchange for switching his vote.
“Voting against pregnant women, are y’all crazy?” Burchett said he responded.
A spokesperson for Johnson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the strong-arm allegations.
Under House rules, Luna’s measure can be called up as privileged business seven legislative days after the completion of the discharge petition. That would tee up the effort for action early next week unless GOP leaders can find an off-ramp.
They aren’t at this point openly pursuing a permanent rules change, something that could invite a slew of other member demands for rules tweaks. One option Johnson and his leadership circle had been considering — changing House rules to make discharge petitions subject to a two-thirds majority rather than the current 218 signatures — is no longer considered likely after at least one Rules Committee Republican warned they wouldn’t support raising the threshold, according to two people with direct knowledge who were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
Instead, hard-liners are floating other rules changes that would make it significantly harder to call up a discharged measure as privileged business, allowing for a fast-track vote.
Most Republicans are vehemently opposed to allowing proxy voting, which was widely used under Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Covid pandemic from 2020 through 2023, when the GOP took back control of the chamber and abolished it.
“The speaker needs to kill it,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a Freedom Caucus member who also sits on the Rules Committee.
Luna said the position of Norman, Johnson and other GOP opponents of proxy voting is at odds with the family friendly policies of President Donald Trump. She noted that his daughter Ivanka previously worked to enact parental leave for federal workers with the president’s support.
”I have a feeling President Trump is probably aware of the situation,” said Luna, who attended a White House Women’s History Month event Wednesday. “And I have a feeling that yesterday, his speech was pretty straightforward on what he feels, that people should be inclusive with families.”
Congress
Rep. Mike Lawler ‘accosted’ by Sen. Rand Paul’s son
Rep. Mike Lawler on Wednesday said he was accosted by the son of Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday night with a 10-minute “reprehensible” antisemitic rant.
The New York Republican told reporters the interaction occurred when he was on his way to a restaurant with at least one journalist. He said William Paul approached him and shouted at him and said he would blame “your people” if Rep. Thomas Massie loses his reelection bid.
“My people?” Lawler asked.
“Yeah, you Jews,” Paul replied.
Lawler said he told Paul that he isn’t Jewish and the senator’s son apologized before launched into an antisemitic diatribe.
“At one point, he said that he hates Jews and hates gays and doesn’t care if they die. And I think that’s fucking disgusting,” Lawler said.
The conversation, he said, ended soon thereafter, with Paul flipping him off and tripping on his way out the door.
In a post to X late Wednesday afternoon, Paul said he “had too much to drink and said some things that don’t represent who I really am.”
“I’m sorry and today I am seeking help for my drinking problem,” he added. A spokesperson for Sen. Rand Paul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I think it speaks to a larger issue, obviously, in society and what we’re seeing among young people and what we see online, and this is the level of hatred and vitriol, frankly, that some of my Jewish colleagues experience, that many of my constituents experience,” said Lawler.
Lawler represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, which is home to about 90,000 Jews, or about 12 percent of the district’s population.
“I’m not going to stop standing up for my constituents. I’m not going to stop standing up for the Judeo-Christian values that are at the core of our nation, our Constitution, our rule of law,” he said.
Congress
Lawmakers’ prescription data at risk after data breach
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were informed this week of a data breach involving the congressional medical office that may have compromised personal information — including their prescription history.
The intrusions occurred March 1 and 3 and targeted RXNT, a medical software provider used by the Office of the Attending Physician to manage care for members of Congress, according to letters sent this week to affected individuals that were reviewed by Blue Light News.
Brian Monahan, the Capitol’s attending physician, is making personal calls to staff and lawmakers whose data are affected, according to one person contacted by phone this week and alerted that their prescription history was among those breached.
RXNT’s software is intended to “securely transmit prescription information to pharmacies for fulfillment,” Monahan’s office explained in the letters to patients. Among the data accessed in the RXNT breach includes names, birthdays, addresses, prescription information, doctor information and pharmacy information.
Under federal law, the data breach has to be reported within 60 days of the intrusion being discovered. RXNT notified the attending physician’s office on the last possible day allowed under federal health privacy rules. That, in turn, might have delayed the OAP’s review of the impact of the breach on Capitol Hill patients, according to two people familiar with the timeline and granted anonymity to share private deliberations.
It is not clear what foreign or domestic entity conducted the breach and where the sensitive data on lawmakers’ health could end up.
Financial data, insurance information and Social Security numbers were not compromised, nor were any patient records maintained by the Office of the Attending Physician that were not shared with RXNT. Such records, which include extensive information on lawmakers’ health history and medical treatments, “remain secured within the walls of Congress” and are “not cloud based,” according to the notice shared with affected patients on Capitol Hill.
“The OAP only provides the minimum information required to process prescription services,” the letter reads.
The Office of the Attending Physician operates several small medical clinics on the Capitol campus where Navy medical personnel handle both emergencies and primary health care for lawmakers, while also providing vaccinations and minor medical services for congressional aides. Staff are able to procure prescriptions through the OAP in limited circumstances, including for official travel and follow-up care.
Congress
Speaker calls allegations against Chuck Edwards ‘serious’
Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday the allegations against Rep. Chuck Edwards are “serious” and that he has spoken to the North Carolina Republican — who reportedly denied them all.
Johnson also noted an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into sexual misconduct and harassment accusations against Edwards, who is alleged to have had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a staffer, among other things.
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