A decade of bipartisan work to establish a Smithsonian women's history museum on the National Mall is collapsing into partisan acrimony just days before a House floor vote, with Democratic support evaporating over GOP amendments that Democrats say hand President Donald Trump unilateral power over the project and inject divisive transgender language into what was once a consensus effort.
The House is scheduled to vote Thursday on legislation authored by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., that would secure a National Mall location for the American Women's History Museum. The bill still carries 127 Democratic co-sponsors out of 231 total, but that support is crumbling fast. Just weeks ago, the measure had such overwhelming bipartisan backing that Republicans were openly angry with Speaker Mike Johnson for not bringing it to a vote.
The revised version now headed to the floor has triggered a formal rebellion. The Democratic Women's Caucus announced its opposition Monday after 146 Democrats signed a letter last month demanding Johnson restore the original bill. Their grievances center on three contentious changes made in the Republican amendments.
The new language specifies the museum's location near the U.S. Holocaust Museum but allows the president to designate an alternative site within 180 days. It grants the Smithsonian's Board of Regents authority to design and construct the building, but only with approval from architectural planning boards whose members were handpicked by Trump. Those same boards would also sign off on Trump's pet projects during his second term, including a White House ballroom and a triumphal arch.
Democrats say this structure strips Congress and the Smithsonian of meaningful control and transforms the museum into a Trump political property. The amendment also includes language restricting the museum to "biological women" only, language Democrats argue targets transgender women and invites arbitrary enforcement.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., accused Republicans of shattering good faith negotiations. "Republicans shattered that bipartisan agreement by handing President Trump unilateral authority over where the Museum will be located, overriding the bipartisan Smithsonian planning process Congress worked on for years, just so Trump can turn it into another one of his personal political projects," Chu said. She also condemned the anti-transgender language as divisive culture war content grafted onto an original bill that contained no such provisions.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, summed up the frustration bluntly. "It was a simple bill. You kind of ruined it with your trans obsession and your culture wars," she said.
Malliotakis disputes the characterization, arguing that Democrats are using Trump's control as cover for their real opposition to the biological women language. She defended the amendment as simple clarification for a women's history museum and dismissed Democratic complaints as absurd.
"The Democrats started pulling out of the bill when an amendment was passed in the House Administration Committee that simply added clarification to that that the museum is restricted to biological women only. I mean, it's a women's history museum. The fact that they would pull their support because it says it in the bill that it would only exhibit biological women is ludicrous to me," Malliotakis said in an interview Wednesday.
She added that she has been coordinating with the White House and Interior Department on the site selection and suggested that the presidential override clause would only matter if the current location proved "not buildable."
Speaker Johnson weighed in to defend the biological women language, framing Democratic opposition as capitulation to radical elements within their own party. "The Democrats may be OK ceding control of their party to the most radical far-left people in the country, but Republicans are not going to be any party to that," Johnson told reporters Wednesday.
The pivot to partisan conflict marks a dramatic reversal from the bill's momentum just weeks earlier. In December, Malliotakis was publicly calling out Johnson for stalling a floor vote, with Republican women adding their voices to pressure the Speaker. At an NBC News event last month, Malliotakis and Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan posed together calling the museum critically important to understanding American history. Dingell invoked Lynda Carter, the actress who played Wonder Woman and has championed the effort. "We don't look at this as Democrats or Republicans or Wonder Woman," Dingell said. "We look at it as people in this country should know the history of so many incredible women."
That spirit of shared purpose has evaporated in what Democrats describe as a last-minute hijacking of the bill.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Ten years of work collapsing over transgender language and Trump power grabs is exactly the kind of self-inflicted wound that turns good-faith projects into partisan ammunition."
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