Public battling between House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) over proxy voting in Congress has come to an end, but its implications are only beginning to emerge. The question that animates them: What does it mean to “represent” another?

For Luna and others, especially bill co-sponsors Reps. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), and Mike Lawler (R-NY), the answer involves making Congress malleable to individual circumstances. The four authored the Proxy Voting for New Parents Resolution, by which members receive the authority to designate a proxy to vote on their behalf for 12 weeks after childbirth. It would also apply to “a medical condition related to pregnancy.” The bill received pushback, especially from Johnson, on the grounds that its proposal was unconstitutional. After a back-and-forth culminating in a House standstill last week, Luna reached a compromise with Johnson through “vote pairing.”