A majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives rejected the bill on Tuesday out of fear that it could grant President-elect Donald Trump the legal tools with which to target his ideological foes, but Republicans are swiftly pressing ahead.

“This bill was designed to criminalize organizations and activists who oppose the U.S.’s unconditional support of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and the slaughter of Lebanese civilians,” read the statement, which was signed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslims for Palestine, and others. “We will continue to stand firm in protecting all organizations’ freedom to speak and operate without fear of political retribution.”

With pro-Israel groups lobbying for the bill, it gained popularity among House Democrats, in part due to a provision providing tax relief to Americans held hostage abroad.

Ultimately, 144 Democrats voted no, along with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., barely meeting the threshold to block the bill from fast-track passage. Voting in favor were 204 Republicans and 52 Democrats. The narrow loss — with so many Democrats supporting the bill, opponents had no votes to spare — provoked outrage from supporters of the bill like Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who had spoken in favor of it prior to the vote.

  • gibmiser@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    75
    ·
    11 days ago

    Sounds like a freedom of speech violation, assuming the Supreme court…

    You know what nevermind

  • P_P@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    70
    ·
    11 days ago

    The U.S. is reconfiguring itself into a dictatorship. What a time to be alive.

    The hour must be later regarding to climate change than we all imagine.

    • WeUnite@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      11 days ago

      We must do everything we can to stop this. Please try contacting three of your friends who you think will listen but don’t know what’s going on and let them know. Kremlin propaganda is trying to get us to fight each other and undermine the US. So far it’s been working but we have the power to stop it.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    11 days ago

    Those support numbers are terrifying. I see no beneficial reason to allow this for any citizen. It only helps Trump be king, and clearly 204 Rubes and 52 DINOs want that

    • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      11 days ago

      Wouldn’t THAT be an interesting turn of events… Trump gets into power and the first thing he does is revoke the charitable status of all churches that don’t give him a 10% cut….

  • ME5SENGER_24@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    11 days ago

    Push that shit as quick as possible….so Biden can veto it and require more votes for it to pass. Any Republican move at this point and Biden has one response, VETOOOOO!

    Unless it serves the greater good I hope he kills everything they put in front of him, the same way they continue to kill basic human rights

  • ArbiterXero@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    11 days ago

    I misread the title and thought this was about killing the poor, and I was less surprised than I should be.