On Wednesday, August 4, the House of Representatives voted to stop a major reduction in the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) budget from $300 million to $141 million. By a vote of 242 to 178, the House approved an amendment sponsored by Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) to increase LSC spending from $141to $250 million. A total of 43 Republicans broke ranks and joined all but five Democrats in restoring funding. This is a similar result to unsuccessful attempts to cut LSC in the past three years when a group of Republicans has joined Democrats to protect the agency's funding. Despite the efforts of Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) to cut LSC funding in the aftermath of a year filled with LSC scandals, including the well-publicized overcounting of cases, several liberal Republicans, including Tom Davis (R-VA) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN), undercut the Majority Leader's efforts by publicly backing the LSC. For example, Rep. Davis, the Chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, was quoted in the August 9 issue of The Weekly Standard downplaying the massive case overcounting scandal: "Lawyers always misrepresent their caseload to clients." The scandal so readily dismissed by Davis consists of many thousands of non-existent cases, possibly hundreds of thousands, that were not disclosed to Congress during last year's appropriations cycle and which almost certainly contributed to LSC having received a $17 million funding increase last year.
On a brighter note, 13 Republicans who had voted to increase LSC funding last year voted to oppose the increase this year. And of nine freshmen Republican members who replaced LSC supporters retiring or defeated last year, seven voted against the LSC funding increase.
43 Republicans Who Voted Against LSC Budget Cuts
| Spencer Bachus (AL) | Benjamin Gilman (NY) | George Nethercutt (WA) |
| Judy Biggert (IL) | Jim Greenwood (PA) | John Porter (IL) |
| Sherwood Boehlert (NY) | Steve Horn (CA) | Rob Portman (OH) |
| David Camp (MI) | Amo Houghton (NY) | Deborah Pryce (OH) |
| Charles Canady (FL) | Kenny Hulshof (MO) | Jim Ramstad (MN) |
| Mike Castle (DE) | Asa Hutchinson (AR) | Ralph Regula (OH) |
| Saxby Chambliss (GA) | Nancy Johnson (CT) | Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) |
| Tom Davis (VA) | Sue Kelly (NY) | Matt Salmon (AZ) |
| Lincoln Diaz-Balart (FL) | Steven Kuykendall (CA) | Christopher Shays (CT) |
| Vernon Ehlers (MI) | Ray LaHood (IL) | Fred Upton (MI) |
| Tillie Fowler (FL) | Steven LaTourette (OH) | James Walsh (NY) |
| Bob Franks (NJ) | Jim Leach (IA) | Curt Weldon (PA) |
| Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ) | Bill McCollum (FL) | Heather Wilson (NM) |
| Greg Ganske (IA) | Jerry Moran (KS) | |
| George Gekas (PA) | Connie Morella (MD) |
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