Feds Could Pull Funding From NC Due to Anti-LGBT Law


North Carolina’s discriminatory HB 2 has drawn outrage from the public, the business community, and even the state’s own Attorney General. Now there’s more bad news: federal agencies are considering withholding funding from the state.

The departments of Education, Transportation, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services are currently reviewing the law. North Carolina receives around $1 billion a year from the Transportation department, and about $4.3 billion from the Department of Education. There’s no word yet how much money would be at stake from the other departments.

How is this possible? Well David Stacy, the government affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign, explains how. There are a number of federal laws from the Title IX in the Education Amendments of 1972, to the Affordable Care Act, and Violence Against Women Act that contain anti-discriminatory language that the North Carolina might violate. Stacy says that:

“This North Carolina law is a sweeping law that really undercuts significant federal protections, and the federal government has a responsibility to examine what levers they have, and what authority they have, to ensure that transgender residents in North Carolina have the federal protections they’re entitled to.”

That means if you violate federal law, then the government has the right to take away your funding.

Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed yesterday that the individual departments are currently reviewing the law. During the April 4th press conference, the Secretary expressed that the Obama administration is serious about examining possible federal violations, and that the North Carolina law raises serious legal and policy issues that need to be explored. He added that:

“I can just say that, more generally, this administration is committed to defending and even promoting the equal rights of all Americans, including LGBT Americans.”


Although these reviews will take time and lots of negotiation, for North Carolina the situation has gone from bad to worse. Governor McCrory is up for re-election this term, and with this news the pressure on him and the state government will only intensify.

 

Featured image via Getty/Alex Wong