Bill That Would Have Protected LGBT People Passed When the Clock Ran Out, but Republicans Held the Clock Open to Defeat It
A bill that would have nullified an extreme anti-LGBT “religious freedom” amendment to a vital military spending bill was ultimately defeated Thursday morning in the House after it had already passed. Republican leaders strong-armed seven of their members and discarded procedures to both keep the clock running after voting had expired, and to protect them by not forcing them to walk up to the clerk to change their votes.
The bill that had passed then was defeated was sponsored by freshman Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York. It would have effectively nullified an amendment passed last Wednesday night that will gut and void President Barack Obama’s executive orders banning discrimination by federal contractors and their employees against LGBT workers.
As shown above, the measure had passed with the required 213 votes. But that’s when “Republican leaders urged their members to change their votes,” according to The Hill.
Republican leaders conspired to ensure the bill was defeated, by holding “the vote open as they pressured members to change sides. Infuriating Democrats, they let lawmakers switch their votes without walking to the well at the front of the chamber.”
Democrats immediately shouted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” on the House floor.
At one point, when the clock ran out, as The Huffington Post’s Jennifer Bendery reports, the vote was 217-206, ensure passage of the Rep. Maloney’s pro-LGBT bill.
These seven House Republicans changed their votes to ensure the measure’s failure:
Reps. Jeff Denham (Calif.)
Darrell Issa (Calif.)
Bruce Poliquin (Maine)
David Valadao (Calif.)
Greg Walden (Ore.)
Mimi Walters (Calif.)
David Young (Iowa)
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan told reporters, “I don’t know the answer. I don’t even know,” when asked if his leadership team pressured members to change their votes, but then defended the outcome and the anti-LGBT amendment, saying, “This is federalism, the states should do this. The federal government shouldn’t stick its nose in its business.”
Here’s video:
UPDATE I: 5:12 PM EDT –
More from The Hill:
Maloney said he’d approached [House Majority Leader Kevin] McCarthy to urge regular order but was dismissed.
“I said, ‘What are you doing? You can let this go; your own members are supporting it,’ ” Maloney said, recounting the exchange with McCarthy. “And he said, ‘Get back on your own side of the aisle.’ And I said to him, ‘What side of the aisle am I supposed to stand on to support equality?’ ”
Maloney emphasized that many Republicans held their ground and refused to switch sides. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) “was at the head of that list,” Maloney said.
“McCarthy went down and talked to him, and [Dent] told [McCarthy] to get lost,” Maloney said. “And McCarthy then went around and twisted everybody else’s arms, and it was disgraceful.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that craven and that ugly in my time in Congress,” Maloney added.