Opposition to Stripping Funding From the Lgbt Center of Greater Reading

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, today Appropriations Committee Republicans struck down community project funding requests for three projects related to LGBTQ organizations, and one was from my community.

The decision to strip this specific request from the bill, a request previously approved by the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee is not based in reasoning or legitimacy, but instead on bigotry and discrimination.

My office's selection process for Community Projects Funding is recognized as one of the most thorough and fair in Congress. We use an independent board of community leaders from our district. That means today the committee overrode the will of my constituents.

My district is a vibrant community in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and I would venture to say that many on the committee who voted against this funding have never visited it. It is demonstrated in the fact that they couldn't pronounce the name of the city of Reading and pronounced it Reading.

They have not visited the LGBT Center of Greater Reading itself like I have many times, and they have never seen the food pantry that helps those who have been rejected by their family or the warm spaces that welcome people in the winter and allow them a clean space to live and be themselves. These are basic human needs.

On behalf of my community and on behalf of the LGBTQ community, I express my vehement opposition to stripping lifesaving funding from the LGBTQ Center of Greater Reading.

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