House Democrats passed two bills on Thursday after an initial conservative knockdown last week.
The LGBTQ Business Equal Credit Enforcement and Investment Act passed by 252/176 with two not voting. The Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act was passed by 245/181 with four not voting.
The LGBTQ bill gives LGBTQ-owned businesses favoritism in lending, much in the same way minority-owned businesses may. The veterans’ contraception bill would facilitate “government-funded access to abortion drugs through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,” Breitbart News previously reported.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to fast-track through the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress last Tuesday using a procedure called “suspension of the rules.” The procedure requires a two-thirds supermajority of the House to succeed.
To combat her agenda, House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and other House conservatives like Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) and Chip Roy (R-TX), among others, forced a roll call of the votes in an effort to get the bills turned down.
Democrats rescheduled the bills for Thursday, this time only requiring a simple majority to ram through the legislation. For the LGBTQ bill, 33 Republicans sided with Democrats, and for the veterans’ bill, 26 Republicans sided with Democrats.
The Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act was highly contentious within the Republican Conference — a small portion of the conference cleaved off in support of the bill under the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and ranking member Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL).
Within the party, there seems to be a differing opinion on whether drugs like Plan-B and Ella are considered contraception or abortifacients. Republicans, who have long been considered the pro-life party, most often believe life begins at conception. Drugs like Ella “can cause the demise of an embryo that is already implanted in its mother’s womb,” according to studies cited by the Family Research Council — which pro-life Republicans would call an abortion, Breitbart News previously reported.
Despite a loss for the pro-life cause, Rep. Rosendale told Breitbart News on Friday that conservatives only lost four Republicans in this week’s revote after Bost’s push to support the bill:
Thanks to the work of conservatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Bob Goode, and Mary Miller, we were able to hold the line and only lose four additional Republicans. One-hundred and eighty-one of us stood up for life, and I’m darned proud of that outcome and the work that went into it. The conference is now on record for the second time, overwhelmingly, that taxpayers should not have to pay for abortifacient drugs.
Both bills will have to pass through the Senate before crossing President Joe Biden’s desk for approval.