The Republican speaker, who has mostly wielded power by relying on the threat of retribution from President Trump, has chosen an institutional fight it’s not clear he can win.

The group of Republicans teamed up with Democrats to overcome a procedural hurdle backed by GOP leadership that would have blocked a proposed resolution allowing new parents in Congress to vote remotely.

Republicans moved to end proxy voting in 2023, after retaking control of the House of Representatives. Luna had received at least 218 signatures on a discharge position and earlier sought to bring the rule to a vote, but Johnson held a procedural vote to block it.

Johnson sent the House home Tuesday afternoon after nine Republicans helped tank a procedural vote designed to kill a proposal by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) that would have allowed proxy voting for new parents.

The joint rule they voted on would have blocked Rep. Anna Paulina Luna's bipartisan discharge petition to allow proxy voting for new lawmaker parents -- both new mothers and fathers -- up to 12 weeks after giving birth.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday took a step towards allowing members who are new parents to cast their ballots by proxy, overriding an effort by the chamber's Republican leadership to block the change.

La.‘s effort to kill a plan to allow remote voting for lawmakers who are new parents. NBC News’ Ali Vitali reports on the bitter dispute that had brought the House floor to a halt.

It was not clear whether the speaker would be able to peel off enough Republicans to prevent the measure from coming up because a majority of House members want to consider it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson endured a decisive defeat Tuesday after he staged an unusually aggressive effort to squash a proposal for new parents in Congress to able to vote by proxy, rather than in person,