House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday
said he's unsure about the costs of defending the federal ban on gay
marriage in court, gay
weekly the Washington Blade reported.
A Boehner-appointed committee last
month instructed House counsel to defend the Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA), which bans federal recognition of the marriages of gay and
lesbian couples, after President Barack Obama announced that his
administration would no longer do so.
Democrats
who oppose the move have pressured Boehner for an estimate of the
costs, but the Republican from Ohio said at a press conference on
Thursday that the costs are irrelevant.
“I do not have an estimate,”
Boehner said. “But we were placed in a position where we were in
effect allowing the administration to determine the constitutionality
of a bill that passed the United States Congress because they were
unwilling to defend it. I don't think the House had any choice but
to take the position that we were going to defend the work that the
Congress – and only the courts are in the position of determining
the constitutionality of any bill.”