“Well, this is Sam. He is my now nine-week-old, but we're working to make sure that new parents are able to vote remotely. When they're unable to be here in person, nobody should have to make the decision that I had to make, which is to take my four-week-old across the country because there was a critical vote that I needed to be here for,” Brittany Pettersen, a Democratic congresswoman from Colorado, told Rudaw.
Pettersen was unable to vote in January due to rules prohibiting remote voting, as she was unable to fly because of medical and travel restrictions during her pregnancy with her second child.
“We want to make sure that we're not excluded from doing our jobs, especially women. You can't even fly when you're close to your due date. And I was stuck in Colorado and unable to represent my constituents. It's unfathomable,” Pettersen lamented.
On January 9, Pettersen, along with coworkers, introduced a bipartisan resolution to allow proxy voting for members of congress who are new parents, as noted on her official congressional website.
She highlighted that House Speaker Mike Johnson is working to block it from reaching the House floor, but lawmakers opposing the move say they won’t back down. They argue that while remote votes can't count toward a quorum, the measure remains constitutional and necessary.
Elected to Congress in 2022 after a decade in the Colorado state legislature, Pettersen is the first woman to represent Colorado’s 7th District and serves on the House Financial Services Committee, including roles on the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee and as Vice Ranking Member on the National Security Subcommittee, based on the biography on her official congressional website.
