Mike Johnson defeated in fight with rogue GOP members over proxy voting

 A dozen House Republicans on Tuesday helped their Democratic colleagues bypass House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and force a vote to allow House members to vote by proxy for up to three months after having children.

Why it matters: The Republican defections came despite Johnson, who helped lead a GOP lawsuit aimed at eliminating COVID-era proxy voting, calling the proposed rules change "unconstitutional."

House Republican leadership has generally discouraged its members from signing onto discharge petitions, but this is the third time in a year members have ignored him.

"We won fair and square," declared Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), the Republican leader of the proxy voting revolt.

State of play: On Monday Luna filed what is known as a discharge petition, which forces a vote on legislation if it receives 218 signatures.

Her bill with Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) — who gave birth in late January and has had to miss most votes since — would allow up to 12 weeks of proxy voting for new parents of either gender.

By Tuesday evening, the discharge petition hit 218 signatures— 206 Democrats and 12 Republicans.

The petition was signed both by moderate Republicans and right-wing hardliners like Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.).

What they're saying: Luna told reporters that the measure makes it so that members who vote by proxy don't count towards a quorum — which she said addresses Johnson's concerns about constitutionality.

"I think he supports families, but ... it's in line with the constitution. He knows that, I know that, I'm right, he's not right," she said.

Pettersen said of Johnson: "I understand his position, but discharge petitions exist so that if you have overwhelming support, you can force a vote and go around leadership. So we're using it for exactly what it's meant to do."

A Johnson spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Between the lines: The tool is often used by rank-and-file members to force votes on bills that leadership has overlooked — or by the minority party to force votes on measures that majority leadership opposes.

In the other two cases this year, lawmakers succeeded in forcing votes on bills to provide tax relief to natural disaster victims and expand Social Security benefits — both of which had fallen through the legislative cracks.

In this case, it was a rare example of a bipartisan effort to ram through a measure that was explicitly opposed by GOP leadership.