Brittany Pettersen: “I thank my colleague from Massachusetts for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule that will…”

“I thank my colleague from Massachusetts for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule that will kill our bipartisan effort to allow parents who have welcomed a new child to vote remotely. I thank Representative Luna for her unwavering commitment to giving moms and dads a voice in Congress. A large majority of the Members of the House support changing the way we do things here and making it more accessible to young families and more reflective of the American people. Speaker Johnson pulled out all of the stops to prevent us from moving forward. We followed the rules and filed a discharge petition. We got the 218 signatures necessary to bring it to a vote on the floor. Yet, he went to historic lengths to try to stifle our voices, including blocking our resolution today before we even had the opportunity to vote for it. Even the President supports this and doesn't understand why it is so controversial, and neither does the rest of America. Let's be clear that the changes agreed upon by the Speaker are not a win for us. They do not address the challenges that we have worked so hard to overcome. The Speaker turned his back on moms and dads in Congress and working families across the country. Congress is stuck doing things the way that we did hundreds of years ago, and it is time that we move it into the 21st century. For all of the people who have said that I should resign because I can't do my job, they are completely missing the point.…”