Speaker Mike Johnson suffered an embarrassing defeat on the floor Tuesday as nine of his own GOP members tanked a procedural vote on a measure that many considered anti-family.

Nine House Republicans joined all 213 Democrats Tuesday to keep alive a bill that would allow lawmakers who are new parents to cast proxy votes for three months after their child’s birth.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is mounting an unusually aggressive effort to squash a proposal for new parents in Congress to able to vote by proxy, rather than in person, as they care for newborns.