Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who will be the first sitting senator to give birth while in office, is vowing to change Senate rules to allow her to bring her baby to the floor of the upper chamber.
“For me to find out that there are issues with the U.S. Senates’ rules where I may not be able to vote or bring my child on to the floor of the Senate when I need to vote because we ban children from the floor, I thought, ‘Wow, I feel like I’m living in the 19th century instead of the 21st, and we need to make some of these changes,’” Duckworth told CNN in an interview Thursday.
Duckworth announced in January she is expecting her second child, due in late April. She joins nine other women who have given birth while in Congress.
The Illinois Democrat said she has discussed changing Senate rules with her party’s leaders and will push for senators to be permitted to bring their child on the floor during his or her first year.
“My leadership of the Democratic Party have been very supportive. We’re going to request a rules change, so that during the first year of the child’s life, whether you’re a woman or a man, whether you’re breastfeeding or not, or you’ve adopted or something, you should be able to bring that child on to the floor and continue to do your job,” she said.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth will be the first US senator to give birth while in office, and she's fighting to change longstanding rules that won't let her bring her baby onto the Senate floor. “I feel like I'm living in the 19th century instead of the 21st.” https://t.co/RVI9FDvynq pic.twitter.com/wDR2lkkvzP— CNN (@CNN) March 8, 2018
Duckworth has previously lamented how Senate rules fail to accommodate expectant mothers.
During an interview on Politico’s “Women Rule” podcast last month, Duckworth said she is technically unable to take maternity leave. If she does, she won’t be allowed to sponsor legislation or vote.
“I mean, this is ridiculous,” the senator told CNN. “We’re in 2018, and we’re still dealing with this in the United States of America. We’re better than that. And certainly, this speaks to the problems we have in this country with the need for family leave and certainly more family-friendly legislation in this country.”
According to Politico, Duckworth intends to take 12 weeks of paid leave and has been working with Democratic leadership, as well as her staff, to determine how she can still vote during that time.
