It passed the United States House of Representatives by a margin of 257-163 but was removed from the final bill after prolonged opposition from President Clinton and several Republican senators.
Emotions ran high during early House debate: Representative Gary Ackerman (D-NY) commented, "After I got over my initial reaction, I decided not to go out and commit any crimes of violence," with other Democrats describing the amendment as "hideous."
Five Republican senators publicly expressed disapproval by sending a letter to Presidential candidate Bob Dole calling the amendment "highly controversial and ill-advised."
Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) were on the conference committee to merge the House and Senate bills and had previously opposed the amendment.
Eventually lobbying against it, Simpson stated that the public did not support the amendment and that "If the national interest is subverted by Machiavellian mumbo jumbo, I'm not going to play that game."