The problem of House leadership, specifically Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip James Clyburn along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has yet to crack their heads together, is rearing its ugly head again on an effort to shield the LGBTQ community from discrimination. The House is considering H.R.5, the Equality Act Friday, new landmark civil rights legislation. House Republicans are plotting to peel Democrats away, and they're going to do it with a motion to recommit (MTR)—the tool they've used effectively against Pelosi and the Democrats to weaken legislation with poison pills. The question Democrats have been grappling with is whether the new coming of the Blue Dogs—freshmen who've been encouraged by Hoyer and Clyburn to buck leadership to "vote their districts"—will wreck it by adopting an as-of-yet unrevealed MTR from Republicans.
"I told leadership we needed to worry," said Rep. Debbie Dingell a co-chair of House Democrats' messaging arm. Whether leadership has taken Dingell's warnings seriously remains to be seen. "We anticipate, of course, there will be an MTR. But I think people understand that an MTR is essentially a vote against the Equality Act," said Rep. David Cicilline the Rhode Island Democrat who is the chief sponsor of the bill and manager of the bill on the floor. "Every Democrat will be voting for this bill on Friday. We are very excited about that," Pelosi said Thursday. “This will be a banner vote for us on Friday, and we hope that it will be bipartisan as well."
It won't. Leadership decided on this one to disallow amendments, fearing Democratic defections on bad amendments. That means it all hangs on a what will be a devious MTR that could be attached to the bill with enough Democratic votes, and it's likely to be about "religious rights," a canard already raised by Rep. Dan Lipinski of Michigan, the only Democrat to refuse to cosponsor the bill, who has reluctantly said he'll vote for the measure, but wants to see religious rights included. "The most important message we're trying to deliver to our colleagues is: Don't get caught in this trap," said Michigan Rep. Dan Kildee a member of the Democratic whip team.
Let's hope the damage hasn't already been done by Hoyer and Clyburn—they've already engineered an embarrassing defeat on an anti-immigration poison bill that passed with their landmark gun safety legislation a few months ago. It can't be repeated on this civil rights bill.