Five of the six Republicans in the S.C. congressional delegation joined with 125 GOP colleagues to sink an energy and water spending bill Thursday, irked by a provision barring the government from hiring federal contractors that discriminate against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals.
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In an embarrassing blow for the Speaker Paul Ryan, the House failed to pass its annual spending bill funding water and energy programs. “It’s a balance he believes we must continue to work to strike”.
House Republicans were engulfed in a nasty intraparty civil war Thursday, as angry social conservatives helped torpedo a routine spending bill in a fight over gay rights that is further dividing a party already riven by the candidacy of Donald Trump. The Obama administration and North Carolina are embroiled in a legal battle over the state’s new law. The 227-192 vote included 11 Republicans voting no.
As reported by Western Journalism, last Thursday an amendment offered by Rep. Sean Maloney, D-N.Y., fell one vote short of passage 212-213, after the Republican leadership held the vote open for several minutes in order, reportedly, to convince a few members to change their vote.
For months, a culture war has raged at the state and local level as lawmakers have sparred over gay marriage, religious freedom and, most recently, the rights of transgender people to use the public bathroom of their choice.
Separately, the House yesterday approved a Democratic amendment aimed at preventing federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Ryan blamed Democrats for the measure’s defeat, saying they “were not looking to advance an issue but to sabotage the appropriations process”.
That amendment, offered by Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) received huge bipartisan support, with 60 Republicans voting yes – including Rep. Paul Ryan (before he was Speaker).
Though the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion hopes to get Army Corps funding for the $2.1 billion flood control project, the bill’s failure won’t prevent the diversion from beginning construction this fall, said Rocky Schneider, a consultant for the Diversion Authority that oversees the project. “We’ll, that’s what happened here today”, Ryan said.
The first time it failed to pass, Democrats chanted “Shame!”
Still, the bill had been expected to pass until Republicans opposed it en masse over the LGBT language.
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 unusual congressional developments? Swing-district freshmen David Young, R-Iowa, and Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, also switched positions on last week’s vote. “It was a political move created to shipwreck the appropriations process”, he said.
This time, GOP leaders let members vote as they wished; about a dozen Republicans, including several from California, rethought their opposition and Maloney’s amendment made it through fairly easily.
Then, Democrats successfully rallied support from moderate Republicans to ban the flag on federal property.
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“While we oppose the Maloney provision, we applaud the passage of the Byrne provision to ensure Congress will continue to provide protections for the thousands of faith-based organizations and family-owned businesses that contract with the federal government to offer fantastic services to many American communities”, Perkins concluded.
