Speaker Johnson cuts deal with Rep. Luna over parental proxy voting
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(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Mike Johnson and Florida GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna say they have cut a deal to end the fight over proxy voting for new parents, which will re-open the House floor after nearly a week of legislative paralysis.
House Republican leaders will formalize “vote pairing,” a procedure that allows a member who is absent during a vote to coordinate with a present member on the other side of the matter to offset the absence, multiple sources familiar with the deal told ABC News.
For example, the procedure in this case would allow a new mother, who is absent for a House vote, to team up with a present lawmaker voting opposite from their stance to form a “pair.”
Some logistics of this deal remain unclear including how this will be enforced.
Vote pairing — which is a rare practice in Congress — is certainly not an equivalent to remote voting but allows for an absence to be offset. But the absent member’s vote is not recorded into the tally of a recorded vote.
The vote pairing process was used in 2018 when the Senate voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. At the time, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who said she would vote against Kavanaugh, paired her vote with Sen. Steve Daines’ of Montana so their votes would cancel out.
Johnson laid out the specifics of the agreement on a GOP member conference call Sunday afternoon, sources said.
In light of the deal, sources said Rep. Luna will not trigger her bipartisan discharge petition — which has 218 signatures — to allow mothers and fathers to vote remotely for up to 12 weeks after childbirth.
“Speaker Johnson and I have reached an agreement and are formalizing a procedure called ‘live/dead pairing’—dating back to the 1800s—for the entire conference to use when unable to physically be present to vote: new parents, bereaved, emergencies,” Rep. Luna posted in a statement on X.
Luna thanked President Donald Trump for his “support” of new mothers. “If we truly want a pro-family Congress, these are the changes that need to happen,” she added.
It is possible for other members — including any Democrat who signed the petition — to call up and force action on Rep. Luna’s measure. But it would likely fail if Republicans stick to the vote pairing agreement.
Johnson is still looking at ways to increase accessibility for new mothers in Congress like adding a room off the House floor for nursing mothers, sources said.
(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump’s battle with the judiciary escalates, House Republicans are eyeing ways to rein in judges from blocking parts of his agenda.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said on Monday his panel will hold hearings next week on U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is at the center of the administration’s legal fight over deportation flights and the Alien Enemies Act.
Trump accused Boasberg — an Obama appointee who was first named to a lower Washington, D.C., court by President George W. Bush — of bias and called for his impeachment after he blocked the administration from using a centuries-old law to deport more than 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador.
Trump and his Republican allies, including Jordan, have also taken issue with the use of injunctions and temporary restraining orders to halt Trump policies nationwide as the courts weigh the merits of each case.
“It really starts to look like Judge Boasberg is operating purely political against the president, and that’s what we want to have hearings on — this broad issue and some of what Judge Boasberg is doing,” Jordan said on Fox News.
Jordan said he thought Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will do the same.
In addition to hearings, Jordan said he expects House Republican leadership to move forward with a bill from California Rep. Darrell Issa aimed at limiting some judges’ power to issue nationwide injunctions.
Issa’s bill — entitled the “No Rogue Rulings Act” — would put restrictions on federal judges issuing orders providing injunctive relief that impacts the entire country outside their districts.
Jordan called it a “good piece of legislation.” The bill was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee before lawmakers broke for recess earlier this month.
Speaker Mike Johnson appears to be warming up to the idea of potentially impeaching judges who rule against Trump, saying “everything is on the table.”
“Impeachment is an extraordinary measure. We’re looking at all the alternatives that we have to address this problem. Activist judges are a serious threat to our system,” Johnson said Monday afternoon.
Johnson confirmed that the GOP-led House will hold hearings to “highlight the abuses” of federal judges — saying lawmakers “may wind up questioning some of these judges themselves to have them defend their actions.”
“We’ll see about limiting the scope of federal injunctions,” he added. “One judge should not be able to suspend and uphold everything that a president does on their issues. I think the American people agree with that.”
Over the weekend, Johnson appeared to endorse the measure, writing on X that the House is “working overtime to limit the abuses of activist federal judges.”
“Speaker Johnson’s indicated he’d like to get this bill to the floor next week and move it through the process,” Jordan told Fox News. “So, we think there’s some things we can do legislatively, and then, frankly, there’s the broader issue of all these judges’ injunctions and then decisions like Judge Boasberg … what he’s trying to do, and how that case is working.”
Meanwhile, the push from Trump, Elon Musk and several Republican hardliners to impeach Boasberg and other judges faces steeper obstacles.
Johnson has not said where he stands on pursuing impeachment, but given the slim House majority, it would be extremely difficult to get the House Republican conference together to vote to impeach a judge.
If the House were to successfully impeach a judge, the Senate would be compelled to act in some way, but the odds of a Senate conviction are almost zero, as it would require support from at least 14 Democrats.
As the rhetoric ramps up between the Trump administration and the courts, the U.S. Marshals Service is warning federal judges of an increase in threats, ABC News reported. Chief Justice John Roberts last week issued a rare public statement amid Trump’s attacks on Boasberg, saying impeachment was not “an appropriate response” to legal disagreements and that the correct path forward was the appeals process.
(SILVER SPRING, Md.) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers as part of the Trump administration’s mandate for agencies to prepare “reductions in force,” according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The cuts are fueling concerns that NOAA’s ability to deliver lifesaving services, such as weather forecasting, storm warnings, climate monitoring and fishery oversight, will be hampered. The concerns are especially acute as hurricane and disaster season looms.
NOAA was “already significantly understaffed, so this is devastating. This is beyond a s—show,” Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Ca., the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in an interview with ABC News. “It means we’re going to be less safe. It means there will be all sorts of collateral damage.”
A person familiar with staffing levels at NOAA told ABC News that the agency is already down about 2,000 people since January as a result of the first round of the Trump administration’s cuts, the “Fork in the Road” offer and regular retirements. In January, this source said, staffing was at about 12,000 employees, which is described as average. With an additional 1,000 cuts looming, the agency would be down 25% since the start of the year.
“There is no way to absorb cuts of this magnitude without cutting into these core missions,” Huffman said. “This is not about efficiency and it’s certainly not about waste, fraud and abuse. This is taking programs that people depend on to save lives and emasculating them.”
NOAA’s reduction in force plan is currently in the Department of Commerce and is due to be delivered to the Office of Management and Budget this week, sources familiar said. It’s unclear when exactly the resulting cuts will be announced, but sources said it could be as early as Friday.
“NOAA was required to submit their cut plan today, and they were asked to eliminate entire functions, not just individual personnel. The number of terminations is more than 1,000, and that is on top of the probationary folks who’ve already been let go,” Huffman said. “Our ability to forecast flood conditions and tornadoes is reduced, and in a matter of days, it’s going to be significantly reduced, as we head into fire season, which is almost all year round now in the West.
“Our ability to forecast red flag weather conditions for wildfires is significantly reduced,” he added. “Literally, the people that run these systems are being terminated. The people that run these offices where these programs do this critical work are being terminated.”
Between the already announced and looming cuts, plus the funding battle that could reduce the agency’s budget, a source familiar said NOAA “could be at a breaking point,” adding that amid all the talks of reducing costs, taxpayers only pay 6 cents per day for all of the services provided by the agency.
“More importantly, the services provided by NOAA wouldn’t be as robust or functional — or maybe even exist at all,” the source said.
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(MEXICO CITY) — The U.S. has paused the implementation of tariffs for a month in both Canada and Mexico following conversations on Monday with President Donald Trump, according to each country’s leader.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a post on social media, writing, “Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl.
Trudeau also added, “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.” The moves will result in a 30-day delay in the tariffs in order to work out a deal, he said.
The moves mirror similar promises Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum issued earlier in the day after speaking to Trump.
U.S. tariffs imposed on Mexico have been “paused for a month,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a post on X Monday shortly after speaking to President Donald Trump. Trump confirmed the news shortly after in a social media post of his own.
Sheinbaum said Mexico has agreed to “reinforce” the Mexico-U.S. border with 10,000 National Guard troops “immediately.” She also said the U.S. had agreed to work to prevent high-powered weapons from being trafficked into Mexico.
Trump did not mention the U.S. working to prevent weapons from being trafficked into Mexico, but confirmed the 10,000 Mexican troops being deployed to the border “to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, Trump’s yet-to-be-confirmed commerce secretary nominee, will negotiate with Mexican leaders in the next month to achieve a permanent deal.
Sheinbaum, who took over as Mexican president in October 2024, said Trump asked her how long she would like the tariffs on Mexico to be paused, and she responded “forever,” before Trump suggested they pause them for a month.
“He insisted on the commercial deficit that the U.S. has with Mexico. I told him it was not a deficit, that we are commercial partners, and it’s the best way to compete with China and other countries,” Sheinbaum said.
“I told him to collaborate,” Sheinbaum said. “He has agreed to the working group.”
Trump had told reporters he would speak on Monday with Sheinbaum and Trudeau prior to imposing import tariffs on their goods. The U.S. president was expected to sign executive orders on Tuesday putting in place 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada and 10% tariffs on those from China, according to the White House.
Trump said Monday afternoon he plans to talk to China in the next day or two about tariffs on that country.
Sheinbaum in a video posted to social media on Sunday said her government was calling for “reason and law” among “individuals as well as among nations.”
‘This measure of 25% tariffs has effects for both countries but it has very serious effects for the U.S. economy,” she said, “because it will raise the costs of all the products that are exported from Mexico to the U.S., it will have a 25% higher cost.”
Trudeau responded to the planned tariffs on Saturday evening, announcing his country will implement 25% tariffs on 155 billion Canadian dollars, or about $107 billion, of U.S. goods. The prime minister said he has not talked to Trump since his inauguration.
Sheinbaum, who was elected in June, offered little detail on how her government’s “Plan B” would respond to the tariffs.
She instructed her economic secretary to “implement Plan B that we have been working on, which includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests,” she said in a statement written in Spanish and translated by ABC News.
She also sought to remind the White House that the current free trade agreements between the U.S. and Mexico have been in place for about three decades.
“The last free trade agreement was signed by President López Obrador and President Trump himself,” she said.
Trump on Sunday told reporters he was unconcerned about the potential impact of imposing tariffs on close trading partners, saying the American people would understand.
“We may have short term, some, a little pain, and people understand that, but, long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world,” he told reporters on Sunday, as he departed Air Force One at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews.
He added, “We have deficits with almost every country, not every country, but almost. And we’re going to change it. It’s been unfair. That’s why we owe $36 trillion; we have deficits with everybody.”
Canada has been taking advantage of the U.S., Trump said, calling the relationship with the country a “one-way street.”
“They don’t allow our banks. Did you know that Canada does not allow banks to go in, if you think about it, that’s pretty amazing,” he said. “If we have a U.S. bank, they don’t allow them to go in.”
Trump added, “Canada has been very tough on oil, on energy. They don’t allow our farm products in. Essentially, they don’t allow a lot of things in, and we allow everything to come in. It’s been a one-way street.”
ABC News’ Matt Rivers, Max Zahn, Kelsey Walsh, Victoria Beaule and William Gretsky contributed to this report.
