Speaker Mike Johnson is facing bipartisan criticism—and public ridicule—after abruptly shutting down the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon for the rest of the week. The move came after a Republican proposal with bipartisan support, which would allow members with newborns to vote remotely, disrupted his legislative agenda. Johnson, who often portrays himself as a devoted family man, opposed a rule change to accommodate new parents.
Democrats voted for the rule change unanimously, and nine Republicans joined them. Johnson effectively poisoned the rules package to block remote voting, or proxy voting, and sent members home.
“House is now paralyzed,” reported CNN’s Manu Raju (see video below). “GOP leaders, after suffering an embarrassing defeat after 9 Rs joined with Ds to keep alive the effort to allow new parents to vote by proxy, have sent the House home for the week. Steve Scalise told us they’re gonna try to kill the rules change again.”
“It’s a brutal loss for Johnson, who poured considerable political capital into trying to snuff out Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) efforts,” Axios reported. “In a rare move, Johnson tied a provision killing the vote to unrelated Republican legislation prohibiting non-citizens from voting in federal elections.”
Johnson’s decision to shut down the House thwarted President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“Well, it’s a very disappointing result on the floor there,” Johnson told reporters. “A handful of Republicans joined with all the Democrats to take down a rule. That’s rarely done.”
Calling it “very unfortunate,” Johnson claimed the vast majority of House Republicans “believe it’s unconstitutional and they agreed that it would open a Pandora’s box.”
During COVID, voting by proxy was allowed in certain circumstances, and many House Republicans took advantage of it. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) was accused of “voter fraud,” when he allegedly recently voted by proxy. There are currently no rules allowing it.
Johnson added that since he has shut down the House, this week they “will not be voting on the SAVE Act for election integrity. We will not be voting on the rogue judges who are attacking President Trump’s agenda. We will not be taking down these terrible Biden policies with the CRA votes. All that was just wiped off the table.”
But Punchbowl news co-founder Jake Sherman says Johnson could have put those bills on the floor for a vote.
“This is a choice, of course. They can bring up the SAVE Act at any time without a rule. They can go back to rules. It’s only Tuesday!! But they’re done for the week…”
U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) mocked the Speaker: “They broke Johnson,” he said.
“So let me get this right,” the Florida Democrat continued, “they opposed proxy voting for pregnant women because they said they should be in dc for work, and their response is to send us home and not work at all?”
“It’s only Tuesday,” lamented U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO). “Yet House Republicans just canceled votes and decided to go home for the week. Inflation is rising. The stock market is tanking. The President is starting a trade war. Congress has work to do. Shameful.”
“Mike Johnson is shutting down the work of Congress for the rest of the week because he’s angry over his failure to discriminate against mothers in Congress,” noted writer Charlotte Clymer.
“I thought they were all about parental rights? Guess it was all BS,” observed U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL).
“MAGA infighting just stopped all progress in the House for the week,” noted Jared Ryan Sears, a Navy veteran who writes The Pragmatic Humanist. “All of Trump’s agenda is on hold because Republican leadership was so afraid to allow a floor vote to proceed, which would determine if new parents could vote by proxy in Congress, that they tried to change the rules to block it; only the rule got blocked instead. As usual, Speaker Johnson is out of his depth. Fortunately, that ineptitude slows down extremist efforts to target judges who protect the rule of law.”
Watch the video below or at this link.