‘Abhorrent’: 76 Republicans Vote to Keep Carveouts for Child Sex Change Groups in Spending Package

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a measure Thursday evening that would eliminate $1.3 billion in earmarks from a government funding package.

Lawmakers voted 291 to 136 on the amendment offered by leading fiscal hawk Republican South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, falling well short of a majority. Norman’s amendment would have nixed all of the earmarks in the Labor-Health and Human Services bill, which contained funding for several entities that perform sex-change procedures for minors and late-term abortions.

“These earmarks are against every conservative value that is known,” Norman said on the House floor Thursday prior to the vote.

The vote notably divided the House Republican conference, with 136 Republicans voting “yes” and 76 joining all Democrats who voted in opposing the effort to strip the earmarks from the