House Republican leaders are playing hardball as they try to stop Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) from triggering a vote on a bill to allow proxy voting for new parents, throwing a procedural hurdle at the push that will test the will of those who support Luna’s full-on legislative war against Republican leadership.

Using arcane parliamentary warfare, GOP leaders are preparing a vote for Tuesday that issues a dare to the Republican lawmakers: If you vote to support Luna and allow her proposal to come to the floor, you will halt action on other legislation that President Trump supports, including on limiting the power of federal judges and requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.

The House Rules Committee on Tuesday morning advanced a procedural rule to set up that vote.

The fight pits arguments about constitutionality and a slippery slope against a desire among “pro-life” Republicans to show support for new moms and families, all while having major ramifications for how much control leaders can maintain over the House floor going forward in their razor-thin majority.

And it is fracturing coalitions in the House GOP.

Luna — who has long pushed for proxy voting for new moms and had her first child months into her first term — resigned from the House Freedom Caucus on Monday after members of the group pushed the Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to be more aggressive in trying to kill her measure. She said in a resignation letter that “respect” among lawmakers in the group had been “shattered last week” and alleged that they threatened to halt floor action if the Speaker did not agree to their hardball tactics.

Luna earlier this month had gotten more than 200 House Democrats and around a dozen Republicans to sign a discharge petition to allow her to force floor........

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