Congressman Chris Smith Votes Against Equal Rights, Covid Relief

During the last week of February, Chirs Smith revealed where his priorities lie. First, Smith voted against the Equality Act, which would have enshrined prohibitions against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity into the Civil Rights Act. Smith is a lifelong opponent of LGBT rights who once said “I do not construe homosexual rights as human rights.” He has opposed marriage equality in every conceivable way including supporting amendments to the US Constitution to limit the definition of marriage. Sadly, his vote comes as no surprise.
Days later, Smith turned his back on millions of struggling Americans when he voted against the American Rescue Plan, the latest COVID relief bill. The bill contains stimulus payments, state and local government aid, funding for testing and vaccinations, expands healthcare access, boosts unemployment benefits, raises the minimum wage, increases food and rental assistance, and contains funding to help schools reopen safely.
Does Smith oppose these measures? Not necessarily, he’s voted for some of them in isolation. But he won’t support them in a time of crisis because the bill provides subsidies for health insurance plans that may cover abortion, and an incredibly small percentage of money is appropriated to institutions and state health deaprtments that provide reproductive healthcare.
Yes, Smith is willing to sacrifice everything in the American Rescue Plan for his crusade against reproductive rights.
Set aside Smith’s other objections about GOP amendments concerning funding amounts for testing, vaccines, and schools. Even if these proposals would have improved the legislation, there are already significant resources allocated to each initiative. Are we really to believe that a bill with 70% public support and the endorsements of Smith’s union donors was only a few amendments away from being palatable? That a few tweaks would have increased GOP support from zero? No. Smith objected because of his extremist views, rank partisanship, or both.
Conventional wisdom is that voters - as far as they are aware of them - have accepted Smith’s extreme anti-LGBT/reproductive rights positions. However, they should remember that if their family’s needs conflict with Smith’s intolerance, he will abandon them.
He’s done it before.
Consider Smith’s history with the Violence Against Women Act: Smith voted for the initial law in 1994 and to renew it several times. According to his website and campaign literature, that support has been constant. Not quite.
The Senate added protections for LGBT Americans to the VAWA when it was up for renewal in 2013 with a bipartisan 78-22 vote. Smith and House Republicans objected and proposed their own alternative. That alternative bill failed the same day the Senate version passed the House.
Smith voted against the Senate VAWA. It is the GOP alternative, without LGBT protections, which Smith praises on his website for that renewal cycle, and which he refers to in his campaign literature. Same day, different bill. Sneaky.
Even Cathy McMorris Rogers, sponsor of the GOP stunt, voted for the Senate bill. But Smith couldn’t, because it acknowledged LGBT people as human beings with human rights. When the VAWA was up for renewal in 2019, Smith did the same thing.
Smith can’t hide behind his vote for either GOP alternative. When he voted against the VAWA, he was unequivocally stating that the bill should not become law. Smith had no guarantee the other party would bail him out and pass the VAWA, and irresponsibly put the VAWA at risk. All the benefits of a law that Smith had previously supported were expendable if it meant protecting LGBT Americans.
Similarly, Smith has turned his back on American families struggling to recover from the physical and economic impacts of COVID. While Smith may have previously supported some provisions in the American Rescue Plan, the possible conflict with his extreme anti-reproductive rights views means they’re just not worth it to him.
This will always be true for Smith. His anti-LGBT/reproductive rights agenda comes first, and there is no cause worthy enough, no crisis great enough, to change his mind.