So much for the Republican Party "concentrating on the economy" and keeping government out of people's lives ...
Only one week after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from marriage equality opponents in Washington D.C. who sought a voter referendum on the issue, the new House Republican leadership says they will push for it, reports The Hill.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), told The Hill that he will push for a vote on the controversial issue in the 112th Congress. The RSC has 175 members. "I think RSC will push for it, and I’m certainly strongly for it. I don’t know if we’ve made a decision if I’ll do it or let another member do it, but I’m 100 percent for it," Jordan said.
In the last Congress, Jordan was the lead sponsor on the D.C. Defense of Marriage Act. The bill was introduced after the D.C. City Council and then-Mayor Adrian Fenty indicated they would recognize same-sex marriages. Jordan’s measure garnered 53 co-sponsors last year. But it is expected to attract more support in the GOP-led House in 2011.
Jordan was one of 49 congressmen, including two senators, who filed an amicus brief to Bishop Harry Jackson's challenge to the D.C. Board of Elections refusal to allow a ballot measure on the issue. The Court refused to intervene.
Joe Sudbay at AMERICABlog outlines how the GOP could use the congressional legislative process to overturn marriage equality in our nation's capitol.
