Why Democrats have soured on a women’s history museum bill set for a House vote

CongressWhy Democrats have soured on a women’s history museum bill set for a House voteRepublicans amended the bill to say President Donald Trump may pick an alternative site for the museum and specified the museum could include only “biological women.”Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M.; Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y. / Politico via AP; Bloomberg via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 21, 2026, 5:00 AM EDTBy Raquel Coronell UribeA decadelong bipartisan effort to build a women’s history museum in Washington is nearing the finish line, but a bill to make it happen now has a lot less Democratic support than it did just a month ago.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The House is set to vote Thursday on legislation that would secure a location on the National Mall for the previously approved Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. Recent GOP revisions, though, prompted scores of Democrats to say they won’t vote for the measure in its current form.The legislation, authored in February 2025 by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., has 231 co-sponsors, including 127 Democrats. At the end of last year, the bill had such strong bipartisan backing that even Republicans had grown frustrated with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for not bringing it to the floor.But Democratic support for the bill has dwindled in recent weeks as House Democrats say an amended version would give President Donald Trump unilateral control over the museum’s ultimate site and its construction.The revised bill that’s set to hit the House floor specifies the museum’s site — near the U.S. Holocaust Museum — and adds that the president may designate an “alternative site” within 180 days of the bill’s passing. It would also give the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents the license to “plan, design and construct” the museum’s building, subject to the approval of a set of architectural planning boards consisting of members who were handpicked b...