This Thursday, Democrats tacked an amendment to an energy and water spending bill that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating regarding gender identity or sexual orientation – an executive order Obama issued in 2014.
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The House voted late Wednesday night to approve a measure to bar the government from paying federal contractors that discriminate based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the bill over a GOP provision they said defends North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law and thus allows discrimination against the LGBT community.
The speaker this week cautioned GOP members at a closed-door session that Democrats were likely to keep trying to force them into uncomfortable votes on LGBT discrimination, according to aides and members who were present. The conservative group Heritage Action on Thursday said it would be counting House members’ votes on the bill as a key vote on its legislative scorecard.
When Maloney offered his amendment to the Energy-Water spending bill on Wednesday night, it was approved in a 223-195 vote.
The debate on the Military Construction-VA and the Energy-Water appropriations bills has caused Republican leadership to reconsider allowing amendments to be offered on the floor, without first being printed in the Congressional Record.
During last Thursday’s vote, the House floor erupted in jeers from Democrats after the vote board showed the LGBT amendment had the votes to pass, but GOP leaders kept the vote open and convinced several members to switch their votes to defeat the proposal. Many Democrats voted against the measure to protest conservative provisions that would have restricted gay and transgender rights. “The Maloney amendment does, and subsequent amendments did not sufficiently address the problem”.
And while the result was encouraging for civil rights’ advocates, did you happen to catch House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) explanation for the odd congressional developments?
“Early on I stood up here … and said that some bills might fail because we’re not going to tightly control the process and predetermine the outcome of everything around here”.
“He believes firmly in protecting the founding principle of religious liberty, while at the same time ensuring Americans do not face discrimination”, said spokeswoman Lauren Beebe.
After the uproar following the defense bill, House Speaker Paul Ryan talked about changing the debate rules for amendments so that all legislation had to be printed and distributed before debate. Seven Republicans were leaning toward voting for the legislation but suddenly changed their minds, resulting in the bill being defeated by just one vote.
Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., said after the vote that he plans to “sit down with our members and have a family discussion about how best to proceed, so that the appropriations process can not be sabotaged and derailed”.
“I thought the comments were wildly out of bounds and especially inappropriate given that this was supposed to be a prayer”, said Dent, who was among the 43 Republicans who voted in support of LGBT rights.
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Democrats see LGBT rights as a prime opportunity to prove that House Republicans are intolerant of minorities.
