Congress
House GOP leaders move to kill proxy-voting effort
Speaker Mike Johnson’s clash with a fellow Republican over allowing proxy voting for new parents in the House is set to play out on the floor Tuesday.
The House Rules Committee approved a measure that would effectively kill Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s proxy-voting effort, which was set to come to the floor for a vote this week under a discharge petition.
The Rules measure, which was advanced out of the panel Tuesday morning on a party-line 9-4 vote, includes language tabling Luna’s legislation and blocking consideration of any future legislation that is “substantially the same”
GOP leadership — at the urging of conservative hard-liners — has lined up against the proxy-voting proposal, which Johnson has called unconstitutional. House Republicans railed against proxy voting when it was employed on a large scale by the Democratic majority during the Covid pandemic from 2020 through 2022, filing an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging its legitimacy.
“We’re not going to let it come up on the floor,” Johnson said Tuesday in a brief interview. He later told House Republicans in a closed-door conference meeting today that his plan would allow for “more time” to discuss the matter, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private remarks.
For Johnson’s plan to succeed, House Republicans will have to stay almost entirely united on a planned midday vote to approve the Rules measure. Johnson and his team spoke with Luna and other Republicans this morning about the way forward.
Luna said Monday she would vote no if the language was included. If she can rally opposition among the 11 other Republicans who supported the discharge petition, she could potentially derail the midday vote — spelling trouble not only for Johnson’s bid to spike her initiative but also for the House GOP’s floor plans this week.
President Donald Trump and top White House officials are privately lobbying Republican senators to delay a ban on intoxicating hemp that’s set to kick in this fall.
At the Trump administration’s urging, the government funding patch the Senate is working to pass this week would push off the forthcoming ban of some cannabis products derived from hemp. But several Republican senators are demanding a vote to strip the delay out and let that prohibition kick in come November.
They’re hearing from the White House about it.
Trump called Sen. Ted Budd on Tuesday night, after the North Carolina Republican filed an amendment to ensure the ban kicks in as mandated on Nov. 12, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion. On the call, the president discussed creating a federal regulatory framework for hemp but did not ask Budd to withdraw his amendment, the individual added.
“I’ve been asked by lots of people to stand down on this amendment,” Budd told reporters Wednesday.
Budd noted that the Trump administration has had almost nine months to come up with a plan for implementing the ban.
“So why all of a sudden pop up for some seemingly innocent delay?” he asked, accusing the White House of instead preparing to “jam this on some must-pass” funding package at year’s end to further delay the prohibition.
A White House official granted anonymity to discuss the private debate said the Trump administration is seeking “a modest four-week delay” through the Dec. 11 expiration of the funding patch “to allow for productive conversations to continue.” Some synthetic cannabis products would be permanently banned in the meantime, the official added.
The administration lobbying has successfully swayed some Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who said in an interview that “the White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry.”
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of hemp-rich Kentucky said the issue came up “in a big way” during Senate Republicans’ private lunch meeting Wednesday. Paul said he spoke in support of delaying the ban and said those arguing for a delay “aren’t very rational.”
“They’re wanting to hold up the funding for the government over one month,” he said. “It’s kind of insane.”
Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is in the Capitol meeting with holdout GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiania as he tries to lock down their support for his confirmation as permanent leader of the Justice Department.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) declined to respond directly Wednesday to Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to denounce his former son-in-law Rep. Max Miller over abuse accusations leveled by Moreno’s daughter: “These aren’t accusations in my world,” he said.
“In my world, this is the reality,” Moreno told reporters at the Capitol. “This is not something that is theoretical to me. This is my lived reality of my daughter and my family every single solitary day.”
In an interview with Dasha Burns for Blue Light News’s The Conversation, Johnson declined to take sides in the dispute between Miller (R-Ohio) and Emily Moreno. He called for a House Ethics probe to “play out.”
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