Nov. 29, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on Senate passage of H.R. 8404:
“Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema did not have the votes to pass the disinformation bill called the Respect for Marriage Act before the election, so she agreed to delay a final vote on the bill until after election day in a lame duck session. Lame duck sessions occur in the most dangerous time of the legislative calendar – when Members of Congress have already faced the voters and many have been defeated or have retired from office. Meaning, it is the one time when they are not beholden to those who voted them into office. Who are they beholden to? A crass observer would speculate that it would be their next employer. In the case of the same sex marriage bill, so many of the major corporations in America have woke environment, social and governance (ESG) policies that coveted Board and C-Suite positions depend upon bowing to that ideology.
“It was a good political tactic for Sinema to urge the vote be pushed back past the election, but it is a terrible indictment of those Senators who wouldn’t vote for the bill before the election, but would afterward. The twelve GOP Senators who voted for cloture are (asterisk denotes lame duck status). NOTE: there is no public record of how these Senators would have voted before election day, but linked reporting at the time explains why the bill was delayed until after November 8):
Susan Collins of Maine
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska (re-elected due to deal cut with Alaska Democrats)
*Rob Portman of Ohio
Mitt Romney of Utah
Thom Tillis of North Carolina
*Roy Blunt of Missouri
Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming
*Richard Burr of North Carolina
Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia
Dan Sullivan of Alaska
Joni Ernst of Iowa
Todd Young of Indiana
“Is there any wonder why cultural conservatives feel no urgent need to vote for Republican leadership? Remember this vote on December 5, as Democrat incumbent Warnock was able to not vote to bring this controversial issue to the floor less than a week before his run-off election because the Senate GOP couldn’t even muster a strategy where they only provided ten votes forcing Reverend Warnock to return to DC and cast a vote that many of his followers would have found to be abhorrent to the Biblical values they hold and adhere to.
“In the end, this bill is a catastrophe for religious liberty and will be tested in federal court, but it also shows a complete failure of GOP leadership in the Senate, which couldn’t even muster enough gumption to force Warnock, who they claim to oppose to cast a very bad political vote right before his election day.”
For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.
###