House Passes LGBT Amendment After Chaos Surrounding Measure Last Week

Rep. Sean Maloney speaks at a "Women for Maloney" event in Somers, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. Maloney, the incumbent, is being challenged by Nan Hayworth in New York's 18th congressional district. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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The House on Wednesday night passed an amendment that ensures federal contractors cannot discriminate against LGBT employees after several Republicans switched their votes to defeat a similar measure last week, prompting disarray on the House floor.

The House passed the measure sponsored by Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY) as an amendment to an Energy Department spending bill, with 43 Republican members supporting it, according to The Hill.

Maloney initially introduced the measure as an amendment to a Veterans Affairs spending bill last week after the House passed a defense bill with language that undermines an executive order from President Obama and lets federal contractors fire LGBT people.

When the House voted on Maloney’s amendment last week, it initially looked like it would pass, with several Republicans supporting the measure. But Republicans held the vote open past the initial time set aside, and a handful of Republicans slowly switched their votes to defeat the measure.

As Republicans switched their votes from “yes” to “no,” shouts of “Regular order” and “Shame!” could be heard on the House floor. And when the measure ultimately failed, Democrats protested the way Republicans maneuvered the amendment’s defeat.

Democrats then called out House Republicans on Twitter, shaming them for switching votes to defeat an anti-discrimination measure meant to protect LGBT individuals.

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.

In response to last week’s chaos, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) moved to require amendments to be printed ahead of time.

Although some Republicans supported Maloney’s measure Wednesday night, they passed an amendment to Maloney’s measure saying that federal funds could not be used in violation of Obama’s LGBT order “except as required by the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and Article I of the Constitution.”

The House also passed amendments supporting North Carolina’s law banning transgender people from using the public restroom that corresponds to their gender identity. One amendment keeps the federal government from pulling funding from North Carolina over the law, and the other offers religious exemptions, according to Politico.

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Notable Replies

  1. It’s about goddamned time! Thank you to the 43 RINOs for stepping up and doing the right thing. No doubt your sensible vote will cost you down the line with the rabid base.

  2. I have a feeling that the 43 live in districts with little Teabagger rabble among the voters.

  3. A big Thank You to those 43 House Republicans! Though it is obviously the right and moral thing to do, I fully understand the pressures you must be under to be mean assholes about this. Thanks for not going along with your mean asshole colleagues and (some of your) constituents. More of this, please!

  4. Although it was a good and right thing to do to pass this amendment what is troubling is that they couldn’t sustain their ‘humanity’. They had to turn around and show what true aholes they are by supporting NC’s reprehensible ‘bathroom bill’. I just got back from a month in Europe and they handle (and REPORT) on issues quite differently. We look like whiney two year olds.

  5. It is unfortunate that the large amounts of other amendments will require Obama to veto this bill. They are probably counting on that. Obama can’t sign a bill supporting NC, and tying his hands to deal with states that violate civil rights.

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