Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Monday introduced a bill to bar transgender women from facilities on Capitol Hill that match their gender identity.
The resolution, which would prohibit members, officers and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities that correspond to their gender identity, comes just a week after Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) made history as the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.
The measure charges the House sergeant-at-arms, William McFarland, with enforcing the ban, according to text previewed by The Hill, but it is unclear how the House’s chief law enforcement officer will determine who can and cannot use the Capitol’s facilities.
State laws that bar transgender people from using public restrooms that match their gender identity often rely on anonymous complaints, a notoriously unreliable enforcement mechanism. LGBTQ rights activists in May flooded a tip line designed to alert officials in Utah to possible violations of the state’s bathroom ban with thousands of false complaints.
“This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing,” McBride said in a statement. “We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.”
“Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on,” she said.
Mace is currently in talks with leadership regarding how to bring the measure to the floor, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill.
The congresswoman initially planned to call her legislation to the floor as a privileged resolution on Monday evening, the source said, a gambit that would have forced leadership to stage a vote on the measure within two legislative days.
But Mace scrapped those plans because of ongoing negotiations with leadership regarding the best way to pass the legislation, the source said. Mace is pushing for the measure to be included in the rules package for the 119th Congress, or for it to be brought to the floor and voted on as a stand-alone rule outside the package.
If the bill, however, is not included in the 119th Congress rules package or brought to the floor as a stand-alone rule, Mace would force a vote on the legislation, the source said.
The House is set to vote on a rules package for the next Congress in early January, which will require a majority vote for passage. Republicans are poised to have a razor-thin majority when the next session gavels in.
Updated at 7:13 pm EST.
