Ryan Mackenzie joined eight other Republicans supporting twelve week proxy voting for new parents. While this accommodation seems reasonable, it apparently contrasted with Trump's back to the office preference. His robot, house speaker Johnson, will now try another way to keep the bill from going to the full house.
The bill was co-sponsored by Anna Luna R-Fla and Brittany Pettersen D-Colo. Pettersen voted with both baby and burp cloth on her shoulder. Mackenzie was involved with new parent legislation while serving as a Pa. state rep..
While the proposal itself only pertains to those members who are new parents, it's revealing how important being in lockstep is to this administration. However, being in the company of eight other Republicans should shield Mackenzie from White House retribution.
Pettersen D-Colo voting
Come on, Mike,this is is nonsense. If you want to be in Congress, then you show up and discuss bills and vote!!! No excuses!!!
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny how you somehow turned a rules issue in the House into something about Trump. To my knowledge, I haven’t heard Trump say anything about it.
ReplyDeleteIt’s also interesting how you try to twist your article article around republicans being in lockstep with the administration, yet fail to note that the democrats always seem to be in much tighter lockstep on everything, whether it’s unconstitutional proxy voting, not clapping for a kid with cancer or keeping criminal illegal aliens in this country.
You should at least find solace that with the republicans you can quickly theorize who they might be in lockstep with. On the democrat side that’s much more difficult.
In fact, we still don’t know who the democrats were in lockstep with during the last four years, or even who was functioning as president in the last administration. Surprisingly, you don’t seem to have much problem, or even curiosity, about that.
Whatever did new mothers in Congress do up until now? We’ve had new mothers there for quite some time. I would prefer not to see voting by proxy for any reason. If you can’t get away for any reason just don’t cast any vote that day. All Congressional vote totals seem to have a few ‘Not Voting’ notations listed after some names.
ReplyDeleteI find Mackenzie's involvement with this curious.
ReplyDeleteHe should be aware how remote voting was installed and abused by the democrats during covid, as the "temporary" process was held in place long after after the rest of us were all back to work. It was finally removed when the republicans took back the House in January of 2023.
I also find it interesting that this is the way he repays the Speaker for campaigning for him in Mackenzie's tight race this past November.
As someone who voted for the supposedly conservative Mackenzie, I'm disappointed that one of his first votes is for an unconstitutional measure that allows the political class to show up for work even less than they already do.
I'd suggest that he gets his priorities straight - and quickly - or start looking for another job. This issue was not why we voted for him and is a distraction from the REAL problems that our country faces.
Long before Trump, long before Covid ..... 2006.. my employer adopted a "work from home" policy for most workers. I worked for a large computer company, and if your job was not one that required you to be physiclly at a company desk, or cube, you could work from home. Some jobs were working in compter rooms with hardware and for one reason or another if you physically interacted with them (changing tapes, servicing the equipment, installing cables) you had to go in otherwise home woking was fine.
ReplyDeleteThe company is extremely large and the emptying of offices meant many company buildings around the United States became surplus and were eventually sold, or a small space was retained on a lease for the hardware and a few desks for those employees.
Now times change and so do top exectives. 2020 Covid hit and starting in 2023, the new CEO wanted us all to return to an office environment. Now my group over the years had changed also and we had people spread out from California to Texas, myself and a few were in Atlanta, and actually we had someone in York, PA. The company began to lease office space here in Atlanta and the three of us were given cubicles as part of the "All Hands On Deck" (notice the cute name) policy. The guy in York could stay at home, Dallas had to go in, Sacramento also could stay at home, so it wasn't exactly everyone, which led to some hard feelings as well (remember, it had been 17 years since I had to be at my desk). Also where the company leased space was 21 miles from my home in an Atlanta suburb, so I had to commute in traffic twice a day. So yes, I was not happy and pissed off about it.
Each year, we were required to complete a "Voice of the Worker" survey which contained quetions about how it was to work for the company. We were told this survey was "confidential" and only summaries were sent to top management.
Now I had risen up through the ranks over all this time, and was earning a good salary and benifits. But yeah i was really upset about having to be up at 4:30 am so I could get under the huge commute here (and other companies were sending people back to work also, which made traffic much worse as well) , so in 2024, I decided to voice by upsettedness on the annual worker's survey.
Rule of employment 25: "Never bite the hand that feeds"
November 2024 comes along, I'm turning 70. I'm working beause my wife died a few years ago, and I really don't feel like retiring because I'm alone now, work takes up time during the day and I'm still valueble in a sea of Indian H-1B workers and Gen Zs. I've got more experience than my fellow managers, mostly in their 50s. And I just got a new office.
So in my daily email I get a calandar appointment, one of the VPs wants to meet 1-1. The time comes and I call ln on the bridge call. "you are being terminated, effective immeiatley" This guy from personnel is actually standing outside my office door so all this has been arranged. I'm out the door within 5 minutes.
It's April now and the shock has worn off. I like having control of my time as I've decided I'm retired and although I still havent yet gotten back to a normal order of things each day, I've realized that I don't need to. If I want to stay up till 3am, so what. Or not go out, I'll stay in that day I'm free of all that daily grind, and more and more I am just glad my working life after 50 years is over.
These Federal employess are still well within their working years. The working from home thing is over. Find another job that you can work from home in the private sector. You may have to move elsewhere, I can recommend Allied and Mayflower. both are good movers. Avoid Bekins at all costs. They really suck.
Now as far as women with nursing babies and nursing them in the chamber, the elected body needs to have a mothers room or something. Nursing your infant in the House or Senate chamber is bad form, The chamber is where you do the people's buisness, not nurse your baby. Sorry..
ReplyDeleteNo one drafted you into being an elected official. Having sex means you can get pregant and be a mother. Be a mother at home or in an appropirate place where you can have privacy. Not in the place you do your work.
We never let mothers nurse infants where I worked in the private sector. When you are at your place of employment, then do your job, and don't bring your infant into a conference room. It's inappropriate.
mothers can cover themselves with a shawl. there’s nothing that needs to be private about nursing. are you embarrassed to drink water in front of your coworkers? why do you advocate for shutting mothers away? i want more babies in the halls of congress, not less. remind us what we’re legislating for.
DeleteExcuse me 8:13, but Congress isn't a daycare, or at least it shouldn't be.
DeleteIf you have a child that's breast feeding, pump it out at night (or at work in the designated break room), put it in a bottle and your babysitter or the workers at the real daycare can feed the baby while you're working.
While there are laws to allow for adequate breaks and a separate room to pump at work, I don't believe any employer is required to actually allow the baby to come to the workplace.
Petterson was using her baby as a political prop, which I suppose is still on the better side of the care spectrum for how democrats usually view babies.
and this attitude, ladies and gentlemen, are why birth rates are down. yes, let’s make life harder for working parents for an outdated notion of “decorum”.
DeleteThe point of this bill is for her and other new parents to avoid having to bring the baby into congress and still be able to participate. This is a totally reasonable request for someone with an infant.
DeleteIt really is much ado about nothing, except it should apply only to women, not former men or gay men who still cannot breast feed or need recuperation from child birth. I expect not many women in congress are going to give birth, probably less than can be counted on one hand in a year.
ReplyDeleteBack in office is another matter, sadly, it is the rare person these days with the self motivation to do their work at home.
You know, if a Congressional vote in Congress is SO critical, so essential to the goals of either political party, then that political party can pay the added expense to fly the individual in/back home for the DAY. I’m pretty sure this can be accomplished within a 24 hour period no matter where someone lives. Bring along a nurse, if necessary.
ReplyDeleteFor many votes, the political party knows in advance its margin of error in holding that vote. The old Not Voting decision is rarely an issue.
This kind of change will open up a Pandora’s Box.
Mike, this post reveals it's not the Republican Party that marches in lockstep, it never was. I could provide endless details and examples. Readers here however are well aware of them already. In the meantime, was their a single Democrat who stood up and and said their president was in cognitive decline? It's a rhetorical question. I could ask a hundred more of such from the D side. Only two example of Dems breaking ranks come to mind, Manchin and Sinima on the huge spending bill.
ReplyDeleteHackenzie Mackenzie is stuck and has a choice to make.
ReplyDeleteHe campaigned on being a “Proven Conservative”. If he votes as a conservative he will loose in the midterms as he simply rode the coattails of trump to get elected and even then only one by the smallest of margins. To solve this he will attempt to moderate, however as he moderates he will be subject of a primary. The wheels are already getting wobbly.
He recently just voted on a continuing resolution to increase the national debt yet again. Not so conservative. The CR also funds the same programs DOGE is claiming to cut. You can’t speak out of both sides of his mouth. Voters will learn he is just trying to fool them.
But then again this is nothing more than we should expect from a career politician who has never had a real career.
The vote or this post has nothing to do with nursing in the workplace, but rather allowing proxy voting limited to new parents for a limited time. To my knowledge, new parents can be either D or R or I. It is not liberal or conservative. Johnson will end up looking like a one track fool. Mackenzie showed some principle.
ReplyDeleteOff topic, but I just read that Nat Hyman is suing the city to clean up the homeless encampments along Jordan Creek.
ReplyDeleteApparently he’s tired of people urinating and defecating on his property, the buildup of trash and garbage in the parkway, and people illegally connecting to his water and electric hookups.
The response from City Hall: “…our priority remains addressing community needs with compassion and collaboration. We continue to work on long-term solutions to support vulnerable populations while maintaining public spaces for all residents.”
Matt Tuerk needs to be thrown out of office. Vote Ed Zucal!
Why anyone, including an elected official, should have to show up at their work place for something they could do just as efficiently at home, is nonsense. I've heard this juvenile nonsense from others before, "But it's not FAIR, I have to go work place! Why don't they?!!!". As a voter, if my elected official is voting for the policies for which they promised they would, I don't care if they are on the North Pole flipping the switch.
ReplyDeleteAs a home worker in general, it has been shown that those of us who have been working from home in our department that our production is up 20%. Despite the facts of better production, we did have push back from a former VP about getting people back everyday in the office. Since his job is mostly BSing with people face to face all day compared to people whose job is to stare and work on a computer all day. He could not comprehend that "real work" was getting done more efficiently. Or maybe he just liked seeing his minions scrambling, who knows? Point being, that other's envy and jealousy of our elected officials and other workers getting to work from home has as much logic as a toddler yelling "No Fair! They are getting something I'm not getting!" (of course, seem that only applies to those that aren't billionaires, lol)
Well well well. Looks like Mackenzie today just fell in line with the party and voted to kill the remote voting bill you just gave him credit for “breaking rank” on last week.
ReplyDeleteHe’s a hack and just voted to kill it. He doesn’t push back against the GOP. Just another deceptive vote meant to confuse voters.
In fairness to Mackenzie, co-sponsor Luna(R) made a compromise herself with Johnson , settling for "vote pairing".
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