Representative Brittany Pettersen: I Can’t Do My Job in Congress Because I’m About to Have a Baby

Through this process, I heard stories from parents as well. Some who had newborns in the NICU and couldn’t be there. They were in Washington to vote and didn’t have that time with their families. [Republican] Actor Mike Lawler, one of our co-laws in this matter, had a baby before the election and then had to immediately start moving back to Washington. He wasn’t able to be there in the ways he wanted to when he was welcoming his new baby. What gives me hope in the work we do is when we get to know each other as people, listen to each other and understand where we are coming from. We get to know each other as individuals, so we are more willing to come to the table, work on things together, and find common ground.

An unlikely ally on this [Republican Representative] Anna Paulina Luna. She’s a completely different political stripe from me, and we’re working together on this issue. I hope we can actually get it done if we can find common ground. There is a lot that brings us together. It’s unnecessary that toxic things have become federal.

What we have is a decision to change the house rules. It is what governs our body, and it is not a privileged decision, so it does not appear for a floor vote unless it is put to a floor vote by leadership. This does not go through the bill process which must pass the House and Senate and be signed by the president. We just have to pass it at home. We just need leadership to back it up, and we have overwhelming support in the body. We know that in the House we have the votes to pass this, but unfortunately we do not have the support from Republican leadership at this time.

The means we have to force a vote is called a discharge petition. If we get 218 signatures, which is a majority of the House, it can force a vote on the floor. This is unlikely to go anywhere, because you have challenged your own leadership. This is why people are reluctant to log in even if they agree. But we’ve found a lot of people who want to sign on to this because they think it’s common sense and the right thing to do.

So we kept beating the roller by sending bipartisan letters to the Speaker of the House and asking him to include it in the rules package so we wouldn’t have to go through this. Then we bring the decision, then we have the opportunity to file the discharge petition in 30 legislative days. This is the lever we will pull if the Speaker does not ultimately allow us to vote on the House floor.

speaker [Mike Johnson] Proxy voting is still said to be unconstitutional, but each court challenge has been upheld. We also used proxy voting during Covid. He can still vote no, but let’s vote on the floor. That’s all we ask. It’s old rules, it’s an outdated mentality. People who say often say, “This is how we have always done things, and this is how we will continue to do them.” Sometimes it takes young people like me and my bipartisan coalition of younger members who are parents to get things going.