The 112-305 vote Thursday reveals that the fight over access to bathrooms and other hot-button social issues could paralyze the House and its plans to pass a series of spending bills to fund the federal government after September 30.
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Democrats blamed Republicans for opposing a Democratic amendment to bar federal contractors from government work if they discriminated against the lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual (LGBT) community.
Just wow-a House energy and water spending bill failed Thursday morning following the successful inclusion of a measure that would have preserved nondiscrimination protections for LGBT employees of federal contractors.
After last week’s rigged vote, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney Re-Introduces LGBT Non-Discrimination Amendment.
“We have more than enough votes”, Maloney said.
Young’s spokeswoman said he opposed Maloney’s amendment last week because it threatened passage of the underlying bill and Young “wasn’t willing to risk passage of critical funding for our military and veterans”.
“Some bills might fail because we’re not going to tightly control the process and pre-determine the outcome of everything around here”, Ryan said.
In a statement, Young’s office said he was comfortable voting for the amendment this time because it included protections for religious beliefs as well as sexual orientation.
Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisconsin, told reporters on Tuesday that the breakdown last week was the result of confusion about the amendment and a fear that the issue could undermine support for the overall bill. After adopting the Maloney measure on Thursday, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Republicans had otherwise “chosen to engage in a systematic campaign of discrimination against LGBT Americans” and “should be ashamed of themselves”.
Several House Republicans and aides said the issue was proving divisive and emotional within their conference.
But for House Republicans from deep-red districts, such floor fights are less “embarrassing” than they are politically useful.
The GOP leadership is trying to “thread the needle”, as aides put it, between conservatives itching for another chance to challenge Obama and those who don’t want to tackle an issue they think is best left for the states to resolve.
The debate erupted last week when Republicans had to extend a floor vote by several minutes and convince a handful of members to change their votes in order to defeat a Democratic amendment to uphold President Obama’s 2014 gay rights executive order.
The energy spending bill, which also covers the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, already faced a veto threat from the Obama administration, which cited “problematic ideological provisions” related to environmental regulation.
“If it was a vote on principle, the bill would have passed today with Democrats voting for it”.
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More than 40 Republicans joined Democrats to adopt the Maloney amendment in a 223-195 vote on Wednesday night.
