Bipartisan group of lawmakers want to allow proxy voting in Congress for new parents

When it was time to vote on the House Republicans’ budget package last month, Rep. Brittany Pettersen had her arms full. Quite literally.

Pettersen, a Colorado Democrat, had just given birth four weeks earlier. She wasn’t allowed to vote by proxy — a process that allows a colleague to cast a vote in a member’s stead, something that was utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic — so instead, she packed up newborn Sam, hopped on a flight and made it to Washington, D.C., to vote. With her baby.