This week, the US House of Representatives geared up for the beginning of the second Trump administration and voted on key pieces of legislation. But Colorado Rep. Brittany Pettersen did not get to weigh in. Why? She’s about to give birth to her second child.
Pettersen, a Democrat serving Colorado’ s third Congressional District, has been unable to cast her vote since Jan. 13, the last day she was cleared by her doctor to fly in her final trimester of pregnancy. Pettersen is delivering in her home state, and because House rules don’t allow members to vote remotely, she’s been prevented from doing her job. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, including GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, have joined Pettersen in a simple request: Allow new parents in this scenario to vote by proxy. Despite this bipartisan support, the issue has not been brought to the House floor.
Below, Rep. Brittany Pettersen explains what is stopping the governing body from fixing this simple yet crucial issue and how far our government still needs to go to adjust to having women serve. This story has been lightly edited and condensed for readability.
I am highly unlikely to be a member of Congress. I was a high-risk youth. I grew up in Jefferson County, where I currently represent, and faced a lot of obstacles at home. My mom hurt her back when I was six and was prescribed opioids like so many people in the ‘80s. She became wildly addicted, and it completely turned our childhood upside down.
I never paid attention to politics. My parents never talked about voting. I don’t even think they voted. The thing that saved me and changed what was possible in my life was my access to great schools and teachers that believed in me. It was my life experience that gave me a passion for wanting to level the playing field for regular people. I never thought I’d run for office myself. I started off working for President Obama’s campaign in 2008 as an organizer, and he really inspired me to believe in what was possible when we come together to affect change. That’s where I was trained on how to successfully organize a community and brought that with me working for candidates and issues.
I never really thought about how I’d juggle my personal life and running for office. What I thought about was how hard it was to come from my background, to not be wealthy and retired, to not have some law practice while you’re getting paid not a living wage to do this work. I wasn’t sure if I wanted kids and really was torn on whether or not I wanted to be a mom. But it’s been the greatest gift of my life. This second little guy was a surprise, and he’s going to contribute so much deeper meaning in the work that I do and the life that I live. But of course, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to navigate. It was already tough with one child and being a mom in Congress. Now I have two. It’s a very complicated life I’ve chosen.
My son, Davis, who just turned 5, reminds me every day what’s at stake in the urgency of this moment. Now I’m going to have another son who’s going to continue to do the same. I’m fighting for their future and also fighting to make sure that we’re modernizing the places of power where we need regular people represented, people who understand the current struggles that families are facing.
It’s really important to me for my kids to grow up in Colorado. It’s the place that I’ve lived my entire life. But it’s really hard going back and forth from DC. I’m one of just a handful of women in Congress that has a toddler, and it’s not a coincidence. It’s because these jobs are not set up for us. We were not part of the design. I know that I get judged often much differently than my male colleagues on the questions that I’m asked. I would say being a mom in Congress makes you feel guilty a lot. I know all parents do, but mom guilt is very real. I’m not [in Congress] because I want the title. I’m there to get things done. I’m not taking time away from my family because I think it’s cool to be in Congress. I’m there because of the moment that we’re in. Far too often I see people who are happy keeping the seat warm, and it can be frustrating to watch.
“I’m one of just a handful of women in Congress that has a toddler, and it’s not a coincidence. It’s because these jobs are not set up for us. We were not part of the design.”
In Congress, you have to actually be present to vote. This is the way that we’ve done it since the beginning. Keep in mind that people used to travel over to DC in their wagons. Times have changed a lot since then. Our ability to actually modernize Congress needs to be a priority. I have a bipartisan resolution to give people in a rare circumstance the option to vote remotely. So if you’re welcoming a new child, you have the time necessary to care for your newborn and still have your votes represented. This is a very easy approach on addressing a real issue for members of Congress that people face.
I’m the only the 14th woman to give birth in Congress, so it’s not like this happens all the time, but it’s incredibly unfair that we could have an option for me to have my vote counted, and that leadership refuses to even bring the resolution to the floor even though we have the votes in the bipartisan support to pass it. That’s what we’re facing right now.
Through this process, I’ve heard stories from dads too. Some who had their newborns in the NICU and were unable to be there. They were in Washington for votes and didn’t have that time with their family. [Republican] Rep. Mike Lawler, who is one of our co-leads on this, had a baby right before the election and then had to immediately start coming back to Washington. He was unable to be there in the ways that he wanted when he was welcoming his new baby. What gives me hope about the work we do is when we get to know each other as people, and we listen to each other and understand where we’re coming from. We get to know each other as individuals, so we’re much more willing to come to the table and work on things together and find common ground.
An unlikely ally on this is [Republican Rep.] Anna Paulina Luna. She’s a very different political stripe than me, and we’re working together on this issue. I’m hopeful that we might actually get it done if we can find common ground. There’s so much more that brings us together. It’s just unnecessary how toxic things have become at the federal level.
What we have is a resolution to change the House rules. It’s what governs our body, and it’s not a privileged resolution, so it doesn’t come up for a floor vote unless it’s brought up for a floor vote by leadership. This isn’t going through the process of a bill that has to pass the house and the Senate and be signed by a president. We just have to pass it in the House. We just need leadership to support it, and we have overwhelming support in the body. We know that in the House, we have the votes to pass this, but unfortunately we are not getting the support from Republican leadership right now.
An avenue that 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 highly unlikely for anything to pass, because you’re kind of challenging your own leadership. It’s why people are hesitant to ever sign on even if they agree. But we’ve found many people who want to sign on to this because they believe that it’s common sense and the right thing to do.
So, we’ve continued to beat the drum by sending bipartisan letters to the House speaker, asking him to include it in the rules package so that we don’t have to go through this. Then we brought the resolution, and then we have the opportunity to bring the discharge petition in 30 legislative days. That’s the lever that we’re going to pull if he ultimately does not let us vote on the House floor.
The speaker [Mike Johnson] continues to say that proxy voting is unconstitutional, but every court challenge for it has been upheld. We also used proxy voting during COVID. He could still vote no, but let us vote on the floor. That’s all we’re asking. It’s outdated rules, and it’s outdated mindsets. It’s the people who so often say, this is how we’ve always done things and this is how we’re going to continue to do them. Sometimes it takes young members like myself and my bipartisan coalition of younger members who are parents to shake things up.
A few months into my pregnancy, I was at an appointment when my doctor talked to me about when it’s not going to be safe to travel anymore. She reminded me to look at what the airline restrictions are. My heart sank, because it was just another challenge that I was going to have to figure out. How I was going to do this and give birth and be a member of Congress. Thank goodness I was able to make it back to Colorado [after my last vote], but now I cannot board a plane because it is unsafe to fly back to DC. So while these votes are happening, my voice and my constituents’ voices aren’t represented. It’s unfair. It’s unreasonable. We have a very simple fix to make sure that people like me still have their vote counted.
“Sometimes it takes young members like myself and my bipartisan coalition of younger members who are parents to shake things up.”
I’m hoping by speaking out that we actually get it done. That we show the American people that we can evolve in Congress; we can work together, even if it’s not an issue that isn’t as big as some of the challenges that we’re facing as a country. We can make Congress more accessible for families and regular people. It’s the first step in modernizing Congress and making sure that people from all walks of life can serve there.
The post Rep. Brittany Pettersen: I Can’t Do My Job in Congress Because I’m About to Have a Baby appeared first on Glamour.
