Repeated shouts of “shame!” came from the left aisle last Thursday when an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act was voted down by House Republicans. After the amendment, which would enforce President Obama’s executive order against LGBT workplace discrimination, initially had enough votes to pass the Republican leadership, they extended the voting time to coerce Yes-voting party members to change their votes. This upholds the apparent unwritten policy of the Congress to allow politics to get in the way of government.
The initial vote count, showing narrow passage of the amendment.
The final vote, reversing the assumed passage after one vote change.
Voting down the amendment was an objection to Obama’s initial enforcement according to New York Republican Peter King. “We shouldn’t be doing this type of thing by executive order. If there is discrimination, we have legislation on the books to address it and if not we need more legislation not to do it by executive order,” the representative said. But isn’t that exactly what this amendment would have done? This is clearly just a political play and an attempt to do anything possible to fight the legitimacy of the President and one that King’s fellow New York Representative Sean Patrick Maloney called “one of the ugliest episodes I’ve experienced.” Maloney, an openly gay Democrat, proposed the amendment to supplement Rep. Adam Smith’s (D-Washington) amendment eliminating “religious liberty” language which protects businesses and institutions “receiving federal contracts [from being] discriminated against on the basis of religion” (The Daily Caller). Opponents of that language say that it strips LGBT employees of their civil rights and instead proposes, with Maloney, stricter enforcement of the President’s executive order.
If so many Republicans (the only dissenters of the change) changed their vote only after coercion from leadership, how is the public supposed to trust their individual judgment? The system is not self-correcting by election and is allowing itself to be manipulated by complicated self-interested politics which turn what should be a game of chess into games of “Sorry!” What I mean to say is that legislation should be deliberated about logically and pragmatically instead of using party politics and petty power moves to get your point across. This move was a complete abuse of majority by the Republican party in the Congress and an unfortunate one that may result in nationwide discrimination against the LGBT community.
