The House on Thursday morning overwhelmingly rejected a $37.4 billion energy and water funding bill that included an amendment from Democrats protecting LGBT rights.
The Energy and Water Appropriations Bill included funding for the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers and other related agencies. It went down 112-305, as many Republicans and almost all Democrats voted against it.
An amendment attached to the bill Wednesday night by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., caused many Republicans to vote against the bill. The amendment banned the bill from giving any money to federal contractors who discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. That amendment survived after similar language from Maloney got kicked out of a defense policy last week, in a controversial close vote.
The energy and water funding bill is often one of the least controversial appropriations bills due to the Army Corps of Engineers projects included in the bill. The Senate version of the bill passed overwhelmingly earlier this month.
However, a late-night debate over amendments also eroded much of the Republican support for the bill.
Maloney’s amendment would have had the effect of enshrining into law President Obama’s 2014 executive order that directed federal agencies to not work with contractors who discriminate based on sexual orientation.
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., echoed many conservative Republicans when she said the bill attacked religious freedom due to Maloney’s amendment. Conservatives — including the influential Heritage Foundation, which urged a no vote on the bill —wanted to make sure Obama’s moves around Congress could not be codified.
“Setting policy by executive fiat, rather than through the legislative process, on sensitive matters such as this is never appropriate,” Black said. “With this amendment, Congress rewarded the president’s end-run around our branch of government and encouraged the use of further overreaching executive orders in the last months of the Obama presidency. I could not, in good conscience, vote for the appropriations bill with this damaging amendment included.”
The bill’s death was cheered by Heritage Action for America. The group’s CEO Michael Needham said Republicans were right to kill the bill over the LGBT amendment.
“Republicans were right to oppose the bill, as it spent far too much and affirmed President Obama’s transgender agenda. Americans expect their Republican leaders to govern as they campaigned — advancing opportunity and liberty while reining in government spending,” Needham said. “Yet, so far this year the GOP leadership appears either unwilling or unable to stand up to a lame duck president on important issues facing the American people.”
Amendments that were despised by Democrats were also added to the bill late Wednesday night.
The bill would have prohibited money to be spent on implementing or enforcing energy-efficiency standards in incandescent light bulbs; kept money from going toward any regulation dealing with the “social cost of carbon;” prohibited any new environmental regulation between November’s election and the end of President Obama’s term that would cost the economy more than $100 million; and banned the Department of Energy from spending money on the 21st Century Clean Transportation Plan.
The Obama administration had threatened to veto the bill over ideological riders as well.
Still, just before the vote, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, held out hope the bill would pass because of the amount of consideration he and other shapers of the legislation took to consider member requests.
“As we drafted this bill, we carefully considered 2,700 member requests,” he said. “This legislation considers 95 percent of those requests in one form or another.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he promised the appropriations process would be done in regular order and all members could offer amendments. That would lead to unpredictability and failed bills, like the energy and water funding measure, he said.
However, he put the blame on Democrats for the bill’s failure.
“What we learned today is that the Democrats were not looking to advance an issue but were looking to sabotage the appropriations process,” he said. “The mere fact that they passed their amendments and then voted against the bill containing their amendments proves this point.”
