Data Shows Weak Support for Anti-LGBTQ Riders on Defense Spending Bills
27.07.2023 - 14:59
/ thegavoice.com
House Republicans’ amendments to recently passed defense spending bills, including controversial anti-LGBTQ provisions, are largely unpopular according to findings from a nationwide survey of 1,254 likely voters conducted by Data for Progress.
The left-leaning think tank published the results of its poll on Tuesday, less than a week before lawmakers will return to their districts for congressional recess in August, setting up a showdown in the U.S. Senate over appropriations bills whose passage by the lower chamber’s Republican majority ignited tensions with Democratic members in recent weeks.
“Motivated by bigotry and the desire to appeal to the GOP extremist base, more than 40 anti-equality provisions across the 12 appropriations bills were passed,” U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said in a statement on behalf of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which he chairs.
“Last week, they went even further and cut millions of dollars in funding for member’s community projects that would have tackled LGBTQI+ homelessness and housing insecurity,” the congressman, who also serves on the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the Committee’s top Democrat and a member of the Equality Caucus, noted that appropriations bills “are statements of our priorities and our values as a country.”
“To that end, the majority has shown they have no values, and no priorities, and are solely focused on how to appease their most extreme caucus members, to greenlight discrimination and impose second-class status on LGBTQ+ Americans, and to defund American workers, seniors, families, and veterans,” said the congresswoman.
Democrats’ majority control of the Senate, while narrow, will create a difficult path for