Rep. Sarah McBride on Friday became the first freshman Democrat to introduce a bill in the 119th Congress — and she is doing so with a Republican.
That a new member filed a bipartisan consumer protection bill normally wouldn’t be noteworthy. But before McBride even arrived on Capitol Hill, some Republicans made clear that as the first openly transgender member of Congress, she wouldn’t be receiving a warm welcome.
The new bill, the Ending Scam Credit Repair Act, seeks to crack down on “fraudulent practices” from companies that “deceive consumers with high fees and empty promises” to fix their credit scores, per a press release shared first with NOTUS. McBride introduced the bill with California Republican Rep. Young Kim.
In a statement to NOTUS, McBride said that “in a diverse democracy, we have to be willing to work with people we may sometimes — or even often — disagree with.”
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“I’ve always said that I will work with anyone to protect and deliver for Delawareans. That’s what I did in the state Senate, where nearly every bill I passed, passed with bipartisan support. And that’s what I’m continuing to do now as Delaware’s member of Congress,” she added.
Rep. Nancy Mace led a bill last year to bar McBride from using the women’s restrooms in the Capitol or any House office building. While the bill was never voted on, Speaker Mike Johnson ultimately announced a policy stating that “all single-sex facilities — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex.”
McBride has not directly engaged with the GOP attacks against her. Instead, she directed her Democratic colleagues not to address them and focus on messaging how they were just distractions. The introduction of the bill comes the same day Mace is scheduled to speak to the Delaware Republican Party about her restroom ban, Axios first reported.
McBride told NOTUS in October, when she was a Democratic candidate, that behavior coming from colleagues like this was not unfamiliar, saying that she has always understood she’d be working with lawmakers who may have “voted against my own rights.”
“I will always have an outstretched hand. I will work with anyone who wants to work with me to help Delaware, plain and simple,” she said at the time.
McBride lauded Kim — who has previously said trans people “deserve to be respected” — for working on the bill with her to address the credit services that the Federal Trade Commission says it has brought “scores of law enforcement actions against.”
“Rep. Kim has always said she’s willing to work with anyone who wants to work with her to get things done and is glad to work on a bipartisan bill with Rep. McBride,” a Kim spokesperson told NOTUS.
“Our bipartisan bill eliminates those loopholes that have allowed predatory practices to flourish by banning upfront fees, improving transparency, and enhancing consumer protections,” McBride said in a statement. “I am grateful to Congresswoman Kim for working across the aisle with me on common sense solutions to deliver for our constituents.”
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Oriana González is a reporter at NOTUS.
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