The House is scheduled to vote Thursday on legislation that would secure a location on the National Mall for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, a project more than a decade in the making. However, recent Republican amendments have prompted dozens of Democrats to announce they will not support the measure in its current form.
The bill, authored by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., has 231 co-sponsors including 127 Democrats. As recently as the end of last year, the legislation had such strong bipartisan backing that Republicans expressed frustration with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for not bringing it to a floor vote.
What the Left Is Saying
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said Democrats worked in good faith to build bipartisan support for the museum and accused Republicans of adding culture war language to the legislation. "Republicans shattered that bipartisan agreement by handing President Trump unilateral authority over where the Museum will be located, overriding the bipartisan Smithsonian planning process Congress worked on for years, just so Trump can turn it into another one of his personal political projects," Chu said in a statement.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, called the revised bill an example of Republicans ceding control to Trump while engaging in what she characterized as divisiveness. "It was a simple bill. You kind of ruined it with your trans obsession and your culture wars," Leger Fernández said.
The Democratic Women's Caucus announced its formal opposition Monday after 146 Democrats signed a letter last month asking Johnson to restore the previous version of the bill. Democrats object to provisions giving Trump unilateral authority over the museum's site, as well as language specifying only "biological women" could be included in the museum, which they say targets transgender women and girls.
What the Right Is Saying
Malliotakis defended the legislation Wednesday, arguing that Democrats are opposing the bill solely because of its inclusion of a phrase specifying it would exhibit only biological women. "The fact that they would pull their support because it says it in the bill that it would only exhibit biological women is ludicrous to me," Malliotakis said.
Speaker Johnson told reporters that the "biological women" language caused Democrats to withdraw backing. "The Democrats may be OK ceding control of their party to the most radical far-left people in the country, but Republicans are not going to be any party to that," Johnson said. "We're not going to stand for it, and neither are the overwhelming majority of Americans who still believe in common sense."
Malliotakis said she has been working closely with the White House and the Interior Department on the museum's site and that the location could change only if the currently planned spot near the U.S. Holocaust Memorial proved unbuildable.
What the Numbers Show
The bill originally had 127 Democratic co-sponsors out of 231 total co-sponsors, representing more than half of its support.
146 Democrats signed a letter requesting Johnson restore an earlier version of the legislation that did not include the contested provisions.
At least 50 House Democrats have publicly announced they will not vote for the current version, according to counts from both parties.
The revised bill specifies the museum's site near the U.S. Holocaust Memorial but grants the president authority to designate an alternative location within 180 days of passage. It also subjects architectural planning and construction to approval by boards whose members were handpicked by Trump.
The Bottom Line
The vote marks a reversal from earlier this year when bipartisan cooperation on the museum appeared likely. The legislation previously had rare unanimous support among Republican women in Congress, with Malliotakis using it as leverage against Johnson over delays.
If the bill fails to pass or passes with significantly reduced Democratic support, it could delay the museum project further and raise questions about whether a compromise can be reached before the end of the congressional session. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on whether Trump would support an alternative version that restored Democratic backing.