Jeffries says Democrats will back the return of proxy voting next Congress

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Thursday that he backs the return of proxy voting for lawmakers who are expectant mothers and new parents.“I certainly will continue to strongly support — and I’m thankful for the leadership of [Reps.] Brittany Pettersen and Sara Jacobs and other members of the House Democratic Caucus in this regard — support proxy voting for expectant mothers and for new parents,” said Jeffries, who is likely to become House speaker when Democrats take control of the chamber in January.Proxy voting, where an absent member of Congress can request a present member to cast a vote in his or her name, is not currently allowed in the chamber. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and lawmakers opposed to the strategy have called the voting method “unconstitutional.” Republicans campaigned against proxy voting, which was heavily expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, in their successful push to flip the House in 2022. Yet, as soon as the practice was banned, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle began pushing for its return.Pettersen and Jacobs, alongside Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Mike Lawler (R-NY), sought to bring the practice back in early 2025 for expectant mothers and new parents. Johnson and other Republicans opposed the practice, but they struck a deal with Luna to allow lawmakers unable to vote because of familial obligations to use “vote pairing” instead. The practice means a member absent but in favor of a bill pairs up with someone who is opposed but also decides to be absent, so the absences cancel each other.JEFFRIES REFUSES TO RULE OUT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN OVER IRAN WAR“To allow proxy voting for one category of Members would open the door for many others, and ultimately result in remote voting that would harm the operation of our deliberative body and diminish the critical role of the legislative branch,” Johnson said in a statement last year.Hundreds of lawmakers, a majority of whom were Democrats, used proxy voting in 2020 during the pandemic. Former Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy challenged the move in court, though the Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit.