Senate GOP accuses Democrats of demanding international support for LGBT initiatives

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A Senate Republican argued that Senate Democrats are demanding tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in international support for LGBT initiatives, pastry cooking courses, electrical buses and extra in trade for reopening the federal government.

Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y., have remained steadfast of their place that until a deal is struck to increase expiring Obamacare tax credit, they won't present the votes wanted to reopen the federal government.

However Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., charged on the Senate ground on Friday that his colleagues' calls for transcend their healthcare push, and is being pushed by the "socialist wing" of the Democratic Social gathering, and extra particularly, by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , D-N.Y.

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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., speaks as Neera Tanden, nominee for director of the Workplace of Administration and Funds, testifies throughout a Senate Committee on the Funds listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 10, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker / POOL / AFP)

"I do not assume Senator Schumer was the particular person in cost, as a result of Senator Schumer is just not the chief of the Socialist wing of his celebration, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is," Kennedy stated. "She's working the present."

When reached for remark, Ocasio-Cortez's workplace pointed Fox Information Digital to an interview she did with NBC News on Republicans' claims that she was driving Democrats' place.

Ocasio-Cortez known as the claims that she was working the present "ridiculous," and charged that Republicans had been those that had shut down the federal government.

"It's so necessary to grasp that these persons are all speak, they're all speak, they're negotiating with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic management, and Democrats are united to that finish," she stated.

He argued that congressional Democrats , pushed by the far-left, wished to unlock funding that Republicans and the White Home had canceled earlier this 12 months within the $9 billion rescissions bundle.

The lawmaker listed out almost $20 million in international support funding that he alleged Democrats had their eyes on, together with, $4.2 million for lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals within the Western Balkans and Uganda, $3.6 million for pastry cooking courses and dance focus teams for male prostitutes in Haiti, $6 million {dollars} for media organizations for the Palestinians and $3 million for circumcisions and vasectomies in Zambia.

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., denies the declare that she is "working the present" throughout the Democratic Social gathering. (Fox Information)

He additionally accused congressional Democrats of looking for a whole lot of hundreds for electrical buses in Rwanda, transgender individuals in Nepal, a pleasure parade in Lesotho and for social media and mentorship in Serbia.

"I might spend the remainder of the afternoon right here," Kennedy stated. "We took all that out."

Kennedy's workplace didn't present particulars to Fox Information Digital when requested particularly the place the funding he referred to could possibly be discovered.

And Democrats' aim of their counter-proposal to Republicans’ persevering with decision (CR) didn't embrace a repeal of the rescissions' bundle, which noticed billions in international support canceled earlier this 12 months.

Their plan demanded a everlasting extension to the expiring healthcare premium subsidies, almost $200 million for beefed up safety for lawmakers, a repeal of the healthcare title within the "One Massive Stunning Invoice Act," a clawback of canceled funding for NPR and PBS, and stiffer guardrails on President Donald Trump’s rescission powers.

DEMOCRATS REFUSE TO BUDGE OVER OBAMACARE FIGHT AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON

Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, maintain a information convention on the GOP reconciliation invoice, on the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP Picture/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

Nevertheless, their CR doesn't embrace a provision that might undo the broader rescissions bundle handed earlier this 12 months that canceled billions in international support funding.

And Senate Democrats have remained bullish of their demand that Senate Republicans should negotiate with them on a deal for the Inexpensive Care Act (ACA) subsidies to earn their votes to reopen the federal government.

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"We now have requested Republican leaders for months to take a seat down and speak to us, speak with us. They've refused and barreled us right into a shutdown," Schumer stated. "They thought they might bludgeon us and threaten us and scare us. It ain't working, as a result of my caucus and Democrats are adamant that we should defend the healthcare of the American individuals."