House Rejects Bill for Smithsonian Women's Museum

What started as a widely backed proposal to locate a new Smithsonian American Women's History Museum on the National Mall devolved into a partisan fight Thursday after Republicans revised the legislation to ensure no transgender people are included in the exhibits. The new language stated that the museum would present experiences and achievements of "biological" women in the US, the New York Times reports. The House rejected the bill, 204-216, an outcome that leaves the next steps uncertain. The revised bill also removed the word "diversity" and gave President Trump the final say on where the museum would be located, reports the AP.

"It was a simple bill. You kind of ruined it with your trans obsession and your culture wars," Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat from New Mexico and chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, said earlier in the week. But Republicans argued it was Democrats who were overreacting to the changes and now threatening progress toward establishing the long-sought women's museum in the nation's capital. Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, the bill's chief sponsor, said "it's a disgrace" that Democrats would be standing in the way of the bill's passage.

"Perhaps the party that is opposing a women's history museum on the National Mall because they want to have transgender exhibits—maybe they are the ones who are trans obsessed," Malliotakis said. In the final tally, a handful of Republicans voted against the bill, joining Democrats who led the opposition. The chamber came to a standstill as GOP leaders scrounged for support from their ranks.

• Among the Republican opponents, some conservatives simply disapproved of a museum focused on women at all. "We say we need to unite this country, but then we isolate every group," said Rep. Tim Burchett, who was among several from the conservative Freedom Caucus who voted against it.
• The new language in the bill gave the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, both controlled by Trump appointees, approval power over design and construction, the Times reports.
• "A museum about women, fought for and supported by women, should not be controlled by one man," the leaders of the Democratic Women's Caucus said in a statement. "Republicans traded the representation of women for Trump's gain and ego. It's as embarrassing as it is disappointing."