The humbling of Paul Ryan

The state-by-state fight for gay and transgender rights has reached the floor of the House of Representatives, and it is ruining Speaker Paul Ryan’s carefully-laid plans for reviving the congressional spending process.

Republicans and Democrats voted down an annual bill appropriating funds for energy and water programs on Thursday morning after Democrats succeeded in attaching an amendment to bar federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The provision drew bipartisan support only days after GOP leaders scrambled to defeat a similar amendment that Democrats tried to add to another appropriations bill—an embarrassing moment in which rank-and-file were cajoled into flipping their votes so the measure would fail. The attempt succeeded this time, but it became moot hours later when the underlying $37.4 billion measure went down in a landslide on a vote of 305-112, with majorities of both parties voting against it. The meltdown happened so quickly that it appeared to catch the House Appropriations Committee, which wrote the bill, off guard. The committee sent out a statement from Chair Hal Rogers praising its passage just minutes before it was voted down; it was quickly rescinded.

The defeat is less significant for this particular bill, or even the LBGT rights movement, than for what it says about Ryan’s push to return “regular order” to the appropriations process and reassert the congressional prerogative over federal spending. “Regular order” is insider lingo on Capitol Hill, but it refers to a bottom-up, committee-driven legislative process that gives more power to individual members and less to party leaders.