Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is leaving the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus after her attempt to advance construction of a Smithsonian American Women\u2019s History Museum Act failed to receive Democratic support.<\/p>\n
Malliotakis, a Republican, served as vice chair of the group, which is dedicated to cross-party legislative solutions.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is leaving the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus after her attempt to advance the construction of a Smithsonian American Women\u2019s History Museum failed on the U.S. House floor
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Democrats say Republicans added \u201cpoison pills\u201d to the bill, including a requirement that only biological women be represented in the museum
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While no Democrat voted for the bill, six Republicans also voted against the measure. Sources told Spectrum News they questioned the museum’s necessity and expressed concern that it would divide Americans<\/p>\n
She announced her departure from the group just 24 hours after her attempt to advance the construction of the museum died on the U.S. House floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus for five years. And it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s become a one-way street,\u201d Malliotakis told Spectrum News.<\/p>\n
While initial legislation to advance the construction of the museum had received substantial bipartisan support, not a single Democrat crossed the aisle to support the bill in its final form. Additionally, six Republicans voted against the measure, with sources telling Spectrum News they questioned the museum\u2019s necessity and expressed concern that it would divide Americans.<\/p>\n
Republican Reps. Andy Harris, Warren Davidson, Josh Brecheen, Tim Burchett, Keith Self and Michael Cloud each voted against the bill.<\/p>\n
Democrats say Republicans added \u201cpoison pills\u201d to the bill, including a requirement that only biological women be represented in the museum.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m saddened and disappointed the Republican majority has needlessly politicized what has for years been a bipartisan priority,\u201d Rochester Rep. Joe Morelle said.<\/p>\n
Malliotakis told her colleagues on the House floor: \u201cI hate to alert my friends on the other side of the aisle, but a museum dedicated to women\u2019s history should have women in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Problem Solvers Caucus Democratic chair Tom Suozzi, who represents Queens and Long Island, stood by his decision to vote down the legislation, he did not reply to Spectrum News\u2019 questions about Malliotakis\u2019 subsequent departure.<\/p>\n
Malliotakis\u2019 exit from the group comes at a time when Americans are increasingly complaining about partisan dysfunction.<\/p>\n
A 2025 Pew Research poll found \u201ceight-in-ten U.S. adults say that when it comes to important issues facing the country, Republican and Democratic voters not only disagree on plans and policies, but also cannot agree on basic facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, a 2025 Gallup poll found 69% of American adults say Republicans\u2019 and 60% say Democrats\u2019 \u201cinflammatory criticism of opponents has gone too far.\u201d<\/p>\n
GovTrack, a nonpartisan website that analyzes political activity, scores both Malliotakis and Suozzi as centrists, based on their legislative activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m certainly going to continue to work in a bipartisan manner,\u201d Malliotakis told Spectrum News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is leaving the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus after her attempt to advance construction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[109,116,25,858,9,24,49,12,112,63,87,45797,134,136,135,27,200],"class_list":["post-247585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-congress","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-shannon-ryan","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}