Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and
Iowa Representative Steve King want Congress to counter President
Obama's decision to no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA) by zeroing out the Department of Justice's budget.
The Clinton-era law bans federal
agencies from recognizing the legal marriages of gay and lesbian
couples and allows states to ignore such marriages. Attorney
General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that he and the president
believe parts of the law are unconstitutional.
“We have the authority to do a few
things, and one of them is to control the budget,” King
told ABC News.
“To continue funding a Justice
Department that defies their oath to the Constitution and refuses to
enforce the laws of the U.S. is a terrible precedent to tolerate. So
the first thing is to send a very strong message by cutting the
funding to the Justice Department.”
In
an interview with Newsmax.tv, Gingrich, a potential 2012 GOP
presidential candidate, said the decision was a “violation” of
the president's “Constitutional oath.”
“I believe the House Republicans next
week should pass a resolution instructing the president to enforce
the law and to obey his own Constitutional oath,” Gingrich said,
“and should say, if he fails to do so, that they will zero out the
office of Attorney General.”