Sean Patrick Maloney, would have prohibited using taxpayer dollars to violate President Barack Obama’s executive order that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors.
Advertisement
“This evening, House Republicans passed two amendments to the Energy & Water appropriations bill that would explicitly permit discrimination against LGBT individuals and families and that express support for the passage of North Carolina’s unsafe anti-transgender law”. In the end, several Republicans switched their yay votes to nays, sending the bill to defeat by one vote.
On Wednesday night Republicans added language to Maloney’s proposal that required that federal contractors must comply with several sections of the U.S. Constitution. GOP lawmakers and aides said Maloney’s amendment caught them by surprise and they had to take quick action against it in order to salvage the underlying legislation, a spending bill to pay for popular veterans and military construction projects.
“The American people want to know that their government is on the level”, Maloney said on the House floor. “They literally snatched discrimination out of the jaws of equality”.
The issue of LGBT rights emerged as a potent political issue this year, after North Carolina passed a bill that mandates transgender people use public bathrooms of their original sex, instead of their chosen gender identity.
That amendment, by Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., came in response to warnings from the Obama administration that it may take federal funding away from North Carolina in response to the state law that blocks certain protections for gay people. “This is an egregious abuse of executive power”.
“Republicans overwhelmingly voted to support. the hateful and discriminatory state law in North Carolina, and to enable anti-LGBT bigotry across our country”, Pelosi said in a statement.
Advertisement
All of the Republicans who switched their votes to defeat the measure last week voted for the amendment on Wednesday night, according to The Hill. Each of them switched back Wednesday, joined by several other Republicans who opposed Maloney’s plan last week. It will be attached to an annual spending bill for energy and water programs.
