A House vote descended into shouts of “shame!” on Thursday as an amendment that would have barred discrimination in defense contracting failed by one vote after at least seven Republicans switched their vote after time had run out.

The amendment was offered by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat from New York. It would have stripped out a provision in the national defense authorization bill that was added several weeks ago — and which Kline voted for. That provision allowed contractors to discriminate against LGBTQ people as long as they did it in the name of religion.

The pro-LGBTQ amendment offered by Maloney had earned enough votes to pass by the time the clock ran out, but Republicans allowed their members to switch enough votes to let the amendment fail. In the end, Minnesota Reps. Tim Walz, Erik Paulsen, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison, Tom Emmer, Rick Nolan, and Collin Peterson voted for the pro-LGBTQ amendment. Only Rep. John Kline voted against it.

Rep. Ellison released a statement about the House floor fracas:

“What we saw today was a stunning display of hate and bigotry on the House floor. Equality was winning with a bipartisan vote. Yet, the Republican leadership decided to hold the vote open so they could twist arms and cajole a few of their Republican colleagues into siding with intolerance.

“If this wasn’t a vote for one’s conscience and principles then I don’t know what is.”

Politico reports on the controversy on the House floor:

“The leader [McCarthy] went around and twisted their arms, and they voted for discrimination,” Maloney said. When Maloney complained directly to McCarthy, he said the majority leader told him “to get back on your own side.”
“The members who switched are going to hold a very special place in American history as the people who didn’t have the guts to stand up and support the will of the House,” Maloney said off the chamber floor after the vote. “They literally snatched discrimination out of the jaws of equality.”

Here are C-CPAN clips of the vote and the aftermath: