President Trump on Thursday threw his support behind a bipartisan effort to allow proxy voting for new parents in Congress, dealing a major blow to Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempts to kill the measure.
“You’re having a baby, you should be able to call in and vote,” Mr. Trump told reporters flying to Florida with him aboard Air Force One. “I’m in favor of that.”
The president’s endorsement of the plan came after he spoke with Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, who has been pushing for a resolution that would allow lawmakers to vote remotely for up to 12 weeks after the birth of a child. There is no parental leave from voting for congressional lawmakers.
Ms. Luna has been leading the charge to allow proxy voting, initially for new moms and now for all new parents, since she gave birth last year. She used a maneuver called a discharge petition — a demand signed by 218 members of the House, the majority of the body — to force consideration of the bipartisan measure to change the chamber’s rules.
Earlier this week, Mr. Johnson tried unsuccessfully to block the resolution from reaching the House floor. He then canceled votes for the remainder of the week, prolonging a battle it’s not clear he can win and effectively freezing the House floor until the issue is resolved.
Mr. Trump’s late entry into the ongoing fight was a rare instance in which he and Mr. Johnson were not on the same side of an issue.