Democrats Try to Shame Republicans After House Vote Over Religious Military Contractors

A momentary loss of decorum followed a vote Thursday in the House of Representatives on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s (D-N.Y.), who is openly homosexual, offered an amendment to “ensure protections for members of the LGBT community.” In reality, it was a measure that would prevent federal funds from going to any faith-based military contractor.

That measure was added in committee two weeks ago to circumvent an executive order by President Obama to end contracts with the contractors based on their deeply held religious views about marriage. It had been hailed as a victory for religious liberty.

When the clock expired on the vote on Maloney’s amendment, it appeared to have passed by a 217-206 margin. But, several votes changed after the time expired, resulting in the amendment failing by a 213-212 margin.

It’s not the first time the majority leadership—regardless of party—has held open voting on a key measure to allow votes to be changed. But Democrats, enraged by the reversal of the vote, began chanting, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

Voting had been held open for nearly eight minutes beyond the end of the two-minute vote. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) had pledged to be a stickler for the House rules—also known as “regular order”—when he took over late last year, a point several Democrats reminded the media about afterward.

“This Speaker’s been a stickler for having timely votes,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), another member of the Congressional LGBT Caucus along with Maloney, said. “We all rush to the floor now, because we know that they’re going to close the vote now shortly after the clock runs out. This was highly irregular.”