Obama admin threatens to withhold billions from North Carolina over bathroom privacy law
The Obama Administration is making noises about cutting North
Carolina off from federal funding after last month’s legislative move by the
governor and some state lawmakers to protect the state’s residents’ privacy and
safety.
Administration officials announced Friday they were reviewing
whether the Public
Facilities Privacy and Security Act overturning a Charlotte city ordinance
allowing men to use women’s restrooms and showers should result in the federal
government withholding funding for schools, highways and housing, to the tune
of billions of dollars.
Experts have indicated that such an extreme step was not likely,
at least not right away, according to The Charlotte Observer, but the
administration’s review is sending a message to North Carolina that there could
be consequences for its new law.
After a statewide outcry against the Charlotte ordinance, the
state’s General Assembly passed HB2 in a special
session March 23,
with Governor Pat McCrorysigning it
into law that same
day.
In addition to repealing the Charlotte ordinance, the new law
limits municipalities’ ability to enact laws with special protection based upon
"gender identity," and mandates that all public educational and
government organizations have restrooms and locker rooms designated by
biological sex.
The first branch of the Obama Administration making threats to
cut funding was the Department of Transportation, when Secretary Anthony Foxx
said March 29 his office was looking at the legislation to determine if there
would be a loss of federal transportation funding to North Carolina. The state
gets around $1 billion from the Department of Transportation each year.
“It’s incredibly hard for me to watch what’s happening here in
North Carolina because I know fundamentally this isn’t who we are,” Foxx, the
former mayor of Charlotte, said while speaking there last month. “But
ultimately people have to remember that the people they elect make these
decisions, and they’ve got to think about that moving forward.”
Department of Education spokeswoman Dorie Nolt said last Friday
that the agency was reviewing the North Carolina law “to determine any
potential impact on the state’s federal education funding,” adding, “We will
not hesitate to act if students’ civil rights are being violated.”
The Education Department gave $4.3 billion to North Carolina
last year between K- 12 schools and colleges.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development indicated it was
reviewing the law for possible revocation of federal funds as well, with
Department spokesman Cameron French confirming, “We’re reviewing the effects of
the law on HUD funding allocated for North Carolina.”
While there’s no recent example of the federal government using
comparable pressure to quash a state law it views as discriminatory, federal
agencies have applied pressure with the threat of lost funds on some California
and Illinois municipal governments, pushing them to change policies to allow
“transgender” students to use the restrooms of the opposite gender.
The Obama Administration joins the list of corporations and
agencies teaming
with the homosexual lobby to punish
North Carolina for acting
to preserve safety and privacy of its citizens.
Businesses critical of the law include, among many others,
Google, Microsoft, Barnes & Noble, Levi & Strauss, Twitter, Starbucks,
Wells Fargo, Facebook, and Apple.
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi sent a letter to McCrory calling for
consideration of rescinding the law when the General Assembly convenes later
this month. Saying she was taken aback by the law and McCrory's opting to sign
it so quickly, Nooyi said the measure is "completely inconsistent"
with the way her company treats its workers and weakens efforts to advance
North Carolina's long-term interests.
The NCAA and NBA have opposed the North Carolina law as well.
The pile-on of North Carolina hasn’t been limited to
corporations, with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of
North Carolina, Lambda Legal and Equality North Carolina filing suit to
overturn the law.
Numerous states and municipalities have banned all but essential
government travel to North Carolina in backlash over the bill. States include New
York, Washington, Connecticut, and Minnesota, and cities include New York City,
San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston.
PayPal said in an April 5 statement it would not move ahead with a planned
expansion in Charlotte due to the law, claiming the law “perpetuates
discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core
of PayPal’s mission and culture.”
North Carolina Lt. Governor Dan Forest issued a statement the same day in response to the PayPal
decision.
"If our action in keeping men out of women's bathrooms and
showers protected the life of just one child or one woman from being molested
or assaulted, then it was worth it,” Forest said. “North Carolina will never
put a price tag on the value of our children. They are precious and priceless.
If a corporation wanting to do business in North Carolina does not see the
worth of our children in the same light, then I wish them well as they do
business somewhere else."
