Weak support for anti-LGBTQ riders on defense bills

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 passage of the 40 anti-LGBTQ provisions House Republicans have attached to the 12 separate spending bills, along with other GOP amendments such as those restricting reproductive rights and diversity initiatives.

With respect to riders targeting the LGBTQ community in the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the House last week, the Data for Progress poll found 60 percent of respondents “agree that anti-LGBTQ+ measures should not be included in bills focused on military spending” while 63 percent said transgender service members should have access to medically necessary healthcare.

A majority of likely voters, 51 percent, objected to language prohibiting military reimbursements for service members to obtain out-of-state abortions, expenses that are currently covered under existing policy at the U.S. Department of Defense.

CHRISTOPHER KANE