News

House Votes to Lift Ban on D.C. Domestic Partnership Funding

Effort Led By Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and Championed by D.C. Councilmember David Catania (R) Successfully Ends 9-Year Ban on Use of Local Funds to Implement Local D.C. Law – 41 Republicans Join in Final Vote

September 25, 2001

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The House of Representatives voted this afternoon to end a ban on the District of Columbia using local funds to implement a domestic partnership law passed by the District's city council in 1992.

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), founding member of the Log Cabin Republicans National Advisory Board, led an effort to end the local-funds ban on the House Appropriations Committee. Kolbe, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, offered an amendment to the D.C. appropriations bill in full committee to end the ban. The amendment was approved on a voice vote. On the House floor, Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), offered an amendment today to overturn Kolbe's amendment and reinstate the local-funds ban which has been in force since the D.C. law's passage.

The Weldon amendment failed today on a vote of 226 against to 194 in favor. Eleven members did not vote. In all, 41 Republicans voted to keep the Kolbe amendment in place and to defeat the Weldon amendment.

Lifting the local-funds ban has also been a long priority of the District's two Republican city councilmembers – Councilmember David Catania, who is openly gay, and Councilmember Carol Schwartz.

"We applaud the House for this important vote, and we thank Congressman Kolbe for his leadership in making it happen, and Councilmembers Catania and Schwartz for their long, tireless leadership in making this vote possible," said Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. "Working together, they made a difference."

The D.C. Appropriations bill awaits action in the Senate.

Log Cabin Republicans is the nation's largest gay and lesbian Republican organization, with state and local chapters nationwide, a full-time national office and a federal political action committee. LCR/DC is one of the largest Log Cabin chapters in the nation.