President Donald Trump is doing a lot of winning, but the House of Representatives is focused on playing games.
The House will vote Tuesday on the National Museum of Play Recognition Act, a bill introduced by New York Democrat Rep. Joe Morelle to designate the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum in Rochester, New York, as the “National Museum of Play.”
The museum’s website says it explores the ways in which play encourages learning, creativity, and discovery, and how it illuminates cultural history. But much of the partly-taxpayer funded museum’s focus is trained on more controversial subjects.
A page on the museum’s website dedicated to “Toyetic Oppression: Black Toys and Black People” asserts that is “useful to explore Black playthings by whether they proliferate violence through Negrophobia or Negrophilia.” It also includes a lesson titled “Exploring the Genius of Black Women in Video Gaming.” Another page is dedicated to “feminism in the doll industry.”
The museum also offers “diversity and inclusion internships.”
“The Strong does not place any restrictions on what constitutes diversity,” the website reads. “However, preference will be given to those candidates who best identify how they will add to the diversity of The Strong and the museum field generally.
In 2024 the museum received nearly $400,000 in taxpayer funding through the National Endowment of the Humanities.
“This federal funding will allow The Strong to further expand their exhibits and build on their legacy of learning, creativity, and discovery through play,” Morelle said in a statement at the time.
Morelle’s bill is slated to receive a vote Tuesday night under suspension of the rules.
Bills advanced under suspension require two-thirds support but circumvent rules designed, in part, to ensure adequate time to scrutinize legislation. Suspension bills in practice are often assembled together in large packages requiring only one vote or voted on in quick succession.
Many suspension bills target parochial issues, such as renaming post offices, important to individual members or a small constituency within their district. Members often look the other way at suspension bills they might ordinarily oppose in order to ensure their own bills can pass without issue.
Morelle’s bill passed the House in the previous Congress in May 2023 but failed to move in the Senate. The bill passed under suspension of the rules, with only 31 members – all Republicans – opposing it.
If Republicans once again look the other way, the bill will pass the House Tuesday.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
