WASHINGTON -- Conservatives angered by the inclusion of protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in an otherwise routine spending bill scuttled the measure Thursday.
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The 305-112 vote to kill an energy spending measure imperils efforts by GOP leaders to pass any more of the 12 annual spending bills for the next budget year. The bill split the all-Republican Arkansas delegation, with Reps. French Hill and Steve Womack voting for the measure and Reps. Rick Crawford and Bruce Westerman voting against.
The implosion came after Democrats managed late Wednesday to add an amendment protecting LGBT people against discrimination by federal contractors. The provision, which passed on a 223-195 vote, was aimed at upholding an Obama administration executive order. Arkansas' four representatives all voted against adding the amendment.
Representatives erupted into cheers Wednesday night after vote on the amendment, sponsored by Rep. Sean Maloney, D-N.Y.
With the amendment added, more than half of House Republicans voted against the bill's passage on Thursday. The revolt came after a closed-door GOP meeting in which conservatives listed their complaints. Outside groups like Heritage Action intensified their opposition to the bill as well.
Meanwhile, Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the bill over a GOP provision they said defends North Carolina's transgender restroom law, which also takes away a variety of federal protections for LGBT people.
President Barack Obama's administration has filed suit against the law and has threatened to take away federal funding for the state, and Republicans muscled through a provision to ensure that federal dollars are not taken away.
"House Republicans' thirst to discriminate against the LGBT community is so strong that they are willing to vote down their own appropriations bill in order to prevent progress over bigotry," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "In turning against a far-reaching funding bill simply because it affirms protections for LGBT Americans, Republicans have once again lain bare the depths of their bigotry."
But it was Pelosi who led a charge by Democrats against a provision to protect North Carolina from retaliation by several federal agencies over the law requiring transgender people to use the restroom of their sex at birth. That provision was approved late Wednesday on a 227-192 vote, with the backing of all four of Arkansas' representatives.
The House also attached to the energy bill a measure introduced by Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., that would have exempted religious groups from Obama's directives to contractors and public schools.
Because the 12 spending bills are among the only must-pass legislation on Congress' plate, supporters and defenders of such measures are expected to use them as vehicles for such proposals.
On Thursday, moments after the bill failed, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., blamed the outcome on Democrats, even though a majority of Republicans voted against the bill. He also said it was a result of the more open procedures he's instituted in the House.
"Early on I stood up here ... and said that some bills might fail because we're not going to tightly control the process and predetermine the outcome of everything around here. We'll, that's what happened here today," Ryan said.
"What we learned today is that the Democrats were not looking to advance an issue but to sabotage the appropriations process," he said.
Democrats said they had a host of other reasons why they opposed the bill, including a series of policy "riders" to roll back environmental regulations and provisions to undercut the administration's nuclear deal with Iran.
Ryan vowed to revive the bill and the overall appropriations process. The same amendment about discrimination by federal contractors had failed when offered to another spending bill a week ago; GOP leaders warned at the time that its approval would have sunk that measure, which would fund veterans programs and military base construction.
The amendment to protect North Carolina, written by Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., came in response to warnings from the Obama administration that it may take away federal money in response to the restroom law.
"The president and his emissaries have stated ... that funds should not be dispensed to North Carolina until North Carolina is coerced into complying with the legal beliefs of the president and his political views," Pittenger said. "This is an egregious abuse of executive power."
The North Carolina law was passed after the city of Charlotte passed an ordinance allowing transgender people to use restrooms of their chosen gender identity. The state law went further to take away federal protections for gays, putting the state at risk of losing a variety of federal funds.
Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press and by Kelsey Snell of The Washington Post.
A Section on 05/27/2016