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SEPTEMBER
**7, 2022**
Dayen on TAP
Senate Democrats Take a Run at Messing Up Same-Sex Marriage Wedge Issue
Linking same-sex marriage codification to a government funding bill
draws mass opposition.
Senate Republicans have been agonizing over how to deal with a
House-passed bill, the Respect for Marriage Act, that would codify
same-sex marriage. They're caught between the most far-right elements
of their base and the preferences of their states, nearly all of which
now support the right of gay couples to marry. The result would either
be the kind of formal, statutory protection for LGBT couples that was
missing when
**Roe v. Wade** was overturned, or another vote by Republicans
alienating them from mainstream opinion.
The only way Democrats could screw this up is by either not holding a
vote, or linking that vote to some other measure in a heavy-handed way,
giving Republicans a clear out from the dilemma they've put themselves
into. So of course, we started hearing yesterday that Democratic Senate
leaders were keen on ... linking the same-sex marriage vote
to the government funding bill that must pass by September 30.
The purpose of this was very unclear. Both bills need 60 votes to pass.
Linking the two wouldn't make the same-sex marriage vote harder for
conservatives, it would make it easier. They can decry the obvious
gimmick of the linked votes as the reason for their opposition, making
it a question of process over principle. And it made the risk of a
government shutdown greater.
But I don't think Republicans were really the target for this
maneuver. As we've reported, Democrats also want to attach the
Manchin/Schumer deal
on "reforming" permitting of energy projects to the must-pass funding
bill. Progressives have been demanding a delinking of those two bills.
But adding same-sex marriage into the mix would make it extremely
difficult for Democrats to reject the permitting changes. It seemed like
the Democratic leadership was more interested in shouting down
progressives who oppose changes to environmental laws to make things
like pipelines easier to build than putting Republicans in an
uncomfortable position.
Fortunately, cooler heads appear to have prevailed. The Senate
co-sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act, Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and
Rob Portman (R-OH), both condemned the idea, saying it wouldn't help
to pass either their bill or the government funding measure. It seems
like it was more of a trial balloon in the process of being shut down.
Now the Democratic leadership has a couple of other choices to make.
Should they hold a stand-alone vote on Respect for Marriage, even
without 60 votes in hand, because it's such an uncomfortable vote for
Republicans to take? And should they sever permitting reform, which
still is woefully lacking in detail with just three weeks until
September 30, out of the government funding bill? After all, it's
going to be hard enough getting additional money for COVID response
in the funding bill, let alone a major change to environmental law that
no Democrat agreed to other than Schumer and Manchin.
It seems like the best answer to both of those questions is "yes."
~ DAVID DAYEN
Follow David Dayen on Twitter
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