Wasserman Schultz Says 'Republicans are stuck in the Dark Ages' Over Proxy Voting for New Mothers

WASHINGTON—Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) spoke to The Floridian about the latest news regarding Representative Anna Paulina Luna's (R-FL) and Brittany Pettersen's (D-CO) move to allow new mothers to proxy vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other Republicans shot down the move on Tuesday.

Rep. Wasserman Schultz mentioned that she's dealt with this issue since her first bid for the United States Congress.

"When I first ran for Congress, my Republican opponent at the time, who was a woman and a mother, the whole campaign she spent saying ... you could be a good member of Congress or a good mother, but you couldn't be both at the same time," said Rep. Wasserman Schultz. "Now I beat her 70-30, and that's essentially what Mike Johnson and the Republicans that oppose Luna and Pettersen's rule change that would simply make sure that just like people who take family medical leave in their workplace when they have a baby and need to stay home for 12 weeks to care for their new child and have their body adjust. That's exactly what we would be doing here."

The Florida congresswoman continued, sharing that despite the majority of Republicans declaring proxy voting as "unconstitutional," it would be best for elected officials to represent their districts when dealing with a legitimate reason.

"It would be making sure that your vote could be represented and your constituents, and that you can balance your work and your family needs and provide the best possible service to vote. Republicans are so stuck in the Dark Ages that I guess they'd rather see only men serve in Congress and women can go to hell," said Rep. Wasserman Schultz.

The Florida representative also described paired voting — a measure that Rep. Luna agreed to with Speaker Johnson — as "BS" and "not a compromise; that does nothing."

For more context, this is how NBC News described vote pairing:

"[Vote pairing] would essentially allow a member who is absent to 'pair' their vote with someone who plans to vote on the other side of the issue. That person would vote 'present,' and the congressional record would reflect the position of each member.

Another version of vote pairing would allow two absent members on opposite sides of an issue to have their official positions reflected in the official record even though they are unable to vote."

Rep. Luna spoke of the deal she struck with Speaker Johnson, saying that he apologized to House Republicans for making "misleading statements" about the SAVE Act.

"We brokered our deal for pairing that's been done historically since the 105th Congress and we essentially formalized the process and also left for pairing which means it's a wash for people that are you know unable to vote," said Rep. Luna. "They were, they were though also going off of what Johnson said,. Johnson apologized to us this morning yeah he said he was sorry for basically making misleading statements and that we could have voted on the Save Act last week and that he would make it up to us."

Publisher Javier Manjarres contributed to this article.