‘Multiple full-time jobs': Inside the life of young parents in Congress

Yahoo

a day ago

WASHINGTON — Just one week after Texas Rep. Brandon Gill's wife had given birth to their second child, the first-term Republican boarded a plane to Washington, D.C., to vote on a crucial markup for President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.'
It wasn't Gill's plan to return to the Capitol so soon. In fact, the 31-year-old father had left town on paternity leave and wasn't expected to return for a few weeks.
But as opposition grew among Republican lawmakers, the framework was threatened with failure in the House Budget Committee markup — requiring all hands on deck to return and salvage the measure.
'We got to the point where … it's time for this bill to get voted out of committee, and they needed my vote,' Gill told the Deseret News in an interview.
But even with Gill's return, the bill still failed to make it out of the committee, resulting in several negotiations over the weekend between GOP leadership and fiscal conservatives to get Trump's tax bill passed. The committee ultimately advanced the package during a rare Sunday night meeting that Gill once again had to leave his wife and children to attend.
'I flew back immediately after (the Friday meeting), and then came in for a Sunday night meeting, and did the same thing,' Gill recalled. 'And we were able to get it done.'
The back-and-forth underscores the difficulty for parents in Congress who must balance the demands of raising a family with the chaotic nature of being a lawmaker in Washington, D.C.
Take Utah Rep. Blake Moore, for example. Because of his duties on Capitol Hill, the father of four was forced to miss the birth of his youngest son as well as his first two birthdays.
But even on average weeks, Moore's absence is felt by both him and his family. For instance, chauffeuring kids from school to sports practices and back home again can be challenging for his wife, who must juggle the competing schedules on her own.
'It's a huge sacrifice,' Moore said. 'It's really tough.'
Moore says he likens the experience to a military deployment of sorts — reflecting on the sacrifice made by those in the armed services.
'To some degree, that makes it a little bit easier to go through this. But it's still hard,' Moore said. 'I've chosen this. My wife and I have decided we're in this together.'
Moore, who was first elected in 2020, notes the difficulties of navigating a public profile don't end when your children become slightly more independent.
As their kids become older and more politically aware, it opens the door for them to witness attacks against their parents — whether it's negative news coverage or protests outside campaign events.
'They can see what some of the commentary is. I don't read the comments anymore, but the commentary is mostly negative,' Moore said. 'That's something that I knew was a part of it, but my kids were so young when I first ran for Congress. Now they are a little bit more aware, and it's like, oh, they're gonna see people say some really, really rude (and) hateful things about me.'
But despite the challenges, the job does allow lawmakers to carve out some time to spend with their families. Moore, for instance, spends Saturdays at home coaching his sons' little league teams.
Gill similarly dedicates time to his family when he is home, telling the Deseret News: 'My top priority is my wife and kids.'
'Whenever I'm home, I try to be fully engaged with my family,' said Gill, who has two young children. 'So whenever I'm in D.C., we absolutely pack the schedule to be as productive as possible, to free up time whenever I'm at home. I would say that it's kind of like multiple full-time jobs.'
And that effort doesn't stop when lawmakers board their planes to come to the office. As members spend time on the campaign trail or fulfill their duties in Washington, their family members are often right by their sides.
'It is definitely a lot to juggle, but we try to keep the family involved as much as possible,' Gill said. 'So whenever Danielle and the kids can come up here, they do. They travel with me. So it adds a little bit more chaos, but it's a good chaos.'
Several members often bring their children to Capitol Hill, even occasionally bringing them along to vote on legislation.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who gave birth to her only child in August 2023, is often seen wheeling a stroller into the House chamber during votes throughout the week. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., regularly carries her 6-month-old son to votes and press conferences.
Just one month after giving birth, Pettersen suprised her colleagues by returning to Washington to oppose a key vote on Republicans' budget plans.
The proposal ultimately passed, albeit by the slimmest of margins, but Pettersen said the effort was worth it.
'We went back and forth on if I could leave Sam, what that would look like, but we didn't know how long I'd be stuck there. And you can't just leave your newborn baby for days,' Pettersen recalled. 'It was terrifying, it was overwhelming, but I knew that too many lives are on the line in my district, and I was not going to not be there.'
Pettersen made headlines as she held Sam in her arms while she cast her vote against the proposal. As a result, her son has become somewhat of a micro-celebrity.
'He's been in so many pictures of people visiting my office, and you know, they'll shake my hand and say, 'Oh, hi, nice to meet you.' And then they'll see Sam, and it's 'I can't believe Sam's here,'' Pettersen said in an interview. 'So everyone's very excited when they get to see Sam in the office.'
Since being born in January, Sam has traveled with Pettersen every time she has returned to Washington — a total of 18 flights so far, Pettersen told the Deseret News.
'I remind myself that while some of the pieces of my job are unique, it's being in Congress, obviously, but I'm doing what moms and parents across America do,' Pettersen said. 'You have to somehow make it work, and every day you have to figure out what that looks like.'
Moore says his sons enjoy coming with him to vote on the House floor, especially when they get to mess around with their dad's colleagues.
'There's a video of my son, sort of kicking (New York Rep.) Andrew Garbarino in the shins. And he may have been directed to do that by me or not,' Moore said with a chuckle. 'They love (Iowa Rep.) Randy Feenstra because they've gone skiing with him before.'
'I think the biggest positive is being able to have my kids experience things that you wouldn't otherwise get to experience,' he added.
Although the presence of children in the chamber has become more commonplace in recent years, it hasn't always been that way. Up until a few decades ago, Congress mostly consisted of older men who didn't have young children at home.
That demographic has begun to shift in recent years, especially after Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., became the first female senator to give birth while in office in 2018. Since then, there's been somewhat of a baby boom on Capitol Hill — followed by increased efforts to make the country's deliberative body more accessible to young families.
Those efforts reached a head earlier this year when Luna and Pettersen forged a rare bipartisan coalition, pressing GOP leaders to allow new mothers to vote remotely while taking maternity leave at home. The pair managed to freeze action on the floor and force a deal with leadership, who ultimately agreed to a watered-down rule change to cancel out absent votes.
'Thanks to POTUS and his support of new moms being able to vote when recovering from child (birth) as well as those who worked hard to get these changes done,' Luna said in a statement when the rule was finalized in April. 'If we truly want a pro-family Congress, these are the changes that need to happen.'
But the system still contains flaws that make that system difficult in practice, Pettersen said.
For example, shortly after the 'vote pairing' resolution was adopted, Pettersen told the Deseret News she reached out to her Republican colleagues to cancel out her vote so she could return home for her maternity leave.
'Of course, nobody would, because it was a Republican priority bill,' Pettersen said. 'It's just unworkable. And so there is so much more that we need to do.'
While that may start with increased accommodations for young parents, Pettersen said, it should extend to making daily schedules more adaptable for lawmakers with children.
'We have schedules that are not made for for regular people, for young parents with young kids,' Pettersen said. 'It's a system that's created for retired, older, wealthier individuals, and so we need to modernize the way that our schedule looks.'
Most lawmakers agree that Congress should be more convenient for those with children at home, arguing it would be beneficial for younger adults to influence policy. While it is difficult, 'it's doable,' they say.
'It's far more doable if you're a representative from Virginia or North Carolina or Pennsylvania than if you are from Utah or North Dakota,' Moore said. 'I think it's just an overall good trend that you're seeing more of it, and people are realizing it's possible. But the challenges are still very — they're insurmountable in some cases.'
'I do think it's a really good thing for us to be more accessible to parents, partly because that helps allow people who are a little bit younger to be here, which is a good thing,' Gill added. 'It adds a little bit of representation that maybe wasn't here before.'