The House Republican leadership has agreed to pay up to $500,000 to defend the federal ban on gay marriage after President Barack Obama told the Justice Department not to defend a key part of the law.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) hired Paul Clement, a Solicitor General under President George W. Bush, to lead the defense of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Republicans decided to hire counsel to defend the law after the Obama administration announced in February it would not defend the part of the law that specifically banned gay marriage that it – and other lower courts – deemed was unconstitutional. House leaders agreed to pay up to $250 an hour and up to $500,000 to hire Clement.
Boehner sent a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) notifying her of the decision. Pelosi, who opposed the Republican leaderships’ decision to defend DOMA, issued a statement on Tuesday where she said the leaderships’ decision was a waste of money. She also said it was hypocritical for the Republicans to be preaching reduced government spending while charging taxpayers up to $500,000 on something that was not only not fair but also unconstitutional.
“The hypocrisy of this legal boondoggle is mind-blowing,” spokesman Drew Hammill said. “Speaker Boehner is spending half a million dollars of taxpayer money to defend discrimination. If Republicans were really interested in cutting spending, this should be at the top of the list.”
A Boehner spokesman, though, said the House Republicans were just following the law and was only intervening because the Obama administration was not.
“Obviously, this whole thing would be unnecessary if the White House and the Justice Department would do their job and defend a law that was passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President of the United States – a Democratic President, at that,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.
The $500,000 cap Clement would be paid is not final and can be “raised by written agreement between the parties with the approval of the Committee [on House Adminstration].” The contract between Clement, the House General Counsel and the committee also says the deal with Clement will expire at noon on Jan. 3, 2013 or when the litigation is complete, whichever comes first.
The deal also comes as a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released on Tuesday showed a slim majority of Americans believe the federal government should recognize gay marriage – in essence overturn DOMA. Of those who responded to the poll, 51 percent said they thought marriages between lesbian and gay couples should be recognized as legal and have the same rights as heterosexual unions, while 47 percent said gay marriages should not be recognized – a change from 44 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval in April 2009.
Like what you read? Want to read more about issues related with Democrats either nationally or in California?
Click SUBSCRIBE at the top of the page to receive email alerts when new articles are published.
Other articles Amanda has written can be found here.
If you have other ideas or tips on political news stories Amanda can or should cover, she can be emailed at AGG12587@aol.com.
Comments