Emilia Sykes

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan bill to establish the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum on the National Mall collapsed Thursday on the House floor after Republicans added language that drove away the Democratic support it needed to pass.

The bill failed 204-216, with 203 Republicans and one independent supporting it and 6 Republicans voting against. No Democrats voted for it and 210 voted against it. Ten members did not vote. Among the Republicans who voted no was Rep. Warren Davidson of Miami County though Davidson did not issue a statement explaining his vote.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes of Akron, who was among the original cosponsors when the bill was introduced in February 2025, voted against it.

In a statement after the vote, Sykes said the fact that both Democrats and Republicans rejected the bill “sends a powerful message: women’s history is American history and cannot be politicized.”

The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act was introduced by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a New York Republican. It was aimed at clearing a legal hurdle: when the museum was originally authorized through a 2021 spending bill, it barred the museum from being built on the part of the National Mall where no new memorials or museums were supposed to be allowed. At its peak the bill had drawn more than 100 cosponsors from each party.

The bill would have designated a specific site for the museum — the South Monument site on the National Mall, bordered by 14th Street Southwest, Jefferson Drive Southwest, Raoul Wallenberg Place Southwest and Independence Avenue Southwest, near the Washington Monument. That location had broad bipartisan support.

What fractured the coalition was a committee rewrite in March that added language specifying that the museum be “dedicated to preserving, researching, and presenting the history, achievements, and lived experiences of biological women in the United States” and barring the museum from identifying “any biological male as a female.” The amended bill also gave President Donald Trump authority to override the designated site within 180 days of enactment.

On the House floor Thursday, Malliotakis argued the controversy over the biological women language was overblown.

“A museum dedicated to women’s history should have women in it,” she said. “That’s it.”

Malliotakis also argued that Republicans deserved credit for advancing the museum legislation at all. She said the museum was first authorized by Trump in 2020, and President Joe Biden didn’t move forward to designate the land during his term.

Democrats were unmoved. Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, argued repeatedly that a straightforward bipartisan fix was available and that Republicans had chosen to abandon it.

In an April 16 letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Sykes and other Democrats warned that the amended bill “not only wipes out years of hard-fought bipartisan progress but also threatens our support for the bill.” Other Ohioans who signed the letter included Reps. Joyce Beatty of Columbus and Shontel Brown of Warrensville Heights.

In the letter, Democrats wrote that the language meant to target transgender women and girls also invites arbitrary enforcement and could be used to challenge the inclusion of any woman or girl a politician deems not ‘feminine’ enough.”

Sykes, in her statement after the vote, said Republicans amended the bill “to give Trump and his allies unregulated power over what content and which women can be included in the museum, and the museum’s location.”

“A museum about women, fought for and supported by women, should not be controlled by one man,” she said.

She called for the legislation to be revived in its original form. “The bill must be restored to the bipartisan version we fought for so we can get the long-awaited museum on our National Mall,” she said.