‘Will Not Hesitate to Act’: Obama Officials May Cut Billions From North Carolina Over Anti-LGBT Law

Cabinet Secretaries Explore if HB2 Makes State Ineligible for Federal Funding 

The Obama administration is exploring North Carolina‘s anti-LGBT law, HB2, and determining if it now makes the Tar Heel State ineligible for federal funds across a wide swath of programs, including highways and transportation, education, and housing.

Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx was the first Obama Administration official to look into the new law. Foxx, coincidentally, a former Charlotte mayor, “first raised the prospect of a review of federal funding in public remarks on Tuesday in North Carolina. The Department of Transportation provides roughly $1 billion a year to North Carolina,” The New York Times reports. The Dept. of Transportation provides about $1 billion annually to the state.

The U.S. Department of Education last year provided $4.3 billion to North Carolina. DOE spokeswoman Dorie Nolt “said on Friday that her agency was also reviewing the North Carolina law ‘to determine any potential impact on the state’s federal education funding.'” She told the Times, “We will not hesitate to act if students’ civil rights are being violated.”

RELATED: McCrory Asked the Media to Put Out ‘More Accurate Information’ on His Anti-LGBT Law. So They Did.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is “reviewing the effects of the law on HUD funding allocated for North Carolina,” spokesman Cameron French also told the Times.

The process would not be immediate and not without attempts to mediate a settlement.

“It would be a long process of negotiation,” said Jane R. Wettach, an education law specialist at the Duke University School of Law in Durham, N.C. “I think the federal government would be loath to do it and would give North Carolina every possibility, every chance to change their position, to change the law, to negotiate, to make some exceptions. I think they’d go back and forth for a while and try to come to a negotiated settlement.”

GOP Gov. Pat McCrory, who has championed the anti-LGBT law and waged an ugly campaign against its opponents, has denied the state would be subject to loss of federal funding. Lt. Governor Dan Forest, also a Republican who organized the special legislative session to pass HB2, ironically decried an attempts to target North Carolina over the anti-LGBT law.

“It would be wrong — even illegal — to single out North Carolina for unfavorable treatment,” Forest told the Times via email. “I’m confident that we will continue to receive this federal money despite the threats from a few in Washington, D.C.”

 

EARLIER:

Gov. McCrory Meets LGBT Equality Advocates, Then His SPOX Condemns ‘National Smear Campaign’ (Video)

WATCH: Seth Meyers Hilariously Mocks North Carolina’s ‘Ridiculous’ Anti-LGBT ‘Bathroom Bill’

Over 80 Top CEOs, Business Leaders Urge North Carolina Gov. McCrory to Repeal Anti-LGBT Law

 

Image: Screenshot via CBS North Carolina/YouTube