Biden threatens VA Bill Veto over anti-LGBT Amendments

WASHINGTON D.C — (07-24-23) — White House officials threatened on Monday to veto House Republicans’ plan to enact anti-LGBT amendments in the Veterans Affairs Funding Bill for the next fiscal year, saying the appropriations outline as written contains too many partisan attacks on LGBT Americans and Women’s reproductive rights.

The White House told reporters on Monday…“The draft bill includes numerous new, partisan policy provisions with devastating consequences including harming access to reproductive healthcare, threatening the health and safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex Americans, endangering marriage equality, hindering critical climate change initiatives, and preventing the Administration from promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. If the president were presented with [the bill], he would veto it.” said the White House in a statement to the press.

The $320 billion VA spending plan is expected to be voted on this week by House lawmakers, with basically the same funding level requested by President Joe Biden in his federal budget proposal last spring.

However the Biden administration said amendments added onto the plan by GOP anti-LGBT lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee have made the proposal unacceptable.

Prior to the GOP’s war on the LGBT Community and Women, the Veterans Affairs budget was also seen as a bipartisan matter, with lawmakers providing significant annual increases in department spending since 2000.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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