House Republicans are seeking to cut three Democratic projects that would provide services to the LGBTQ community during Tuesday’s fiscal 2024 Transportation-HUD Appropriations markup, enraging Democrats on the committee.
The three earmarks total $3.62 million, with two in Massachusetts and one in Pennsylvania. The projects would be eliminated as part of a Republican en bloc amendment that would advance a range of Republican cultural priorities, including a provision that would ban flying gay pride flags over government buildings. The panel is expected to vote on the amendment later Tuesday.
The committee went into recess just before 12:30 p.m. Tuesday after ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., called House Republican conservatives “terrorists” and Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., asked for her words to be stricken from the record.
DeLauro said the move was to “placate the whims of some, who, I might add, in looking historically, do not ever vote for appropriations bills. You are negotiating with terrorists.”
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., said the committee’s move to strip the earmarks is “bigoted” and described his own experience getting attacked leaving a gay bar that left him unconscious.
“This is what you guys do, by introducing amendments like this,” Pocan said. “Taking away from people’s earmarks is absolutely below the dignity of Congress, and certainly the Appropriations Committee.”
The earmarks that are set to be stripped include two in Pennsylvania: $1.8 million that Rep. Brendan F. Boyle requested for an expansion project at the William Way Community Center in Philadelphia and $970,000 that Rep. Chrissy Houlahan requested for a transitional housing program at the LGBT Center of Greater Reading.
“This cruel and unjust decision is not rooted in any legitimacy, but instead in bigotry and hatred,” Houlahan said on Twitter.
The third project is $850,000 that Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley, D-Mass., requested for LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. to convert a former Boston Public School building into 74 units of affordable housing for seniors.
When Democrats were in power, they never rejected Republican earmarks for ideological reasons, DeLauro said.
Each party traditionally picks which of their earmarks they want to fund within the budget set by committee leadership. DeLauro said the projects met the requirements that Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas, rolled out earlier this year.
“In all the two years that I dealt and this committee dealt with community projects, never once, never once did we challenge any Republican project,” DeLauro said. “We said, you do what you want to do and we do what we want. And that has been destroyed today.”
Boyle said in a statement Tuesday that the William Way Community Center provides “vital social services, including employment counseling, meals for seniors, and many other resources.”
“The William Way Center clearly qualifies for Community Project Funding based on the merits,” he said. “The only reason why it is now being targeted to lose these dollars is because of disgusting and ugly bigotry.”
Committee Republicans didn’t address their move to strike the three earmarks during the panel’s morning session.
House Republicans earlier this year changed the eligibility rules for earmarks, which in part grew out of an effort to eliminate “woke” projects from getting funding in the annual spending bills. Rule changes included requiring members seeking projects to certify that the earmarks have a “federal nexus” and are for purposes authorized in prior law. Boyle’s certification letter is here; Pressley’s is here and Houlahan’s is here.
During the panel’s recess, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said it would be “inappropriate” to fund the projects his party wants to cut.
“That’s a woke priority, and we’re not going to spend the government’s [money]” to fund the projects, he said.
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(Valerie Yurk and Caitlin Reilly contributed to this report)
