In what lawmakers have called an unprecedented move, House Republicans introduced and moved a last-minute amendment stripping three community projects of funding as part of a committee markup for the 2024 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development spending bill. Of the 2,680 projects previously approved, these three all serve the LGBTQ+ community. The ranking member of the committee, Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, called the GOP move one of “terrorists.” The Republican-led House Committee on Appropriations took up and passed a last-minute amendment that sought to strike funding for three community centers that serve LGBTQ+ seniors in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. LGBTQ+ Senior Housing Inc., William Way LGBT Center, and LGBT Center of Greater Reading were all stripped of funds. Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley said the projects make up 0.1 percent of the funds requested. Rep. Brendan Boyle, whose Philadelphia-area project was defunded, says that he and many of his colleagues suspect that Republicans just searched for the keyword LGBTQ+ to see which projects to target. Democrats point out that these projects passed muster and review, and their only problem is including that acronym in their name. Florida’s Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that in 18 years, she has never witnessed members strip funds from another member’s project in this way on the Appropriations Committee. #LGBTQ+ Civil Rights