The Hill News

Congressional Republicans on Tuesday defended paying an attorney half a million dollars to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.

Top House Republicans have agreed to pay King & Spalding attorney Paul Clement $500,000 to defend the act, which blocks the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. In response Democrats criticized the deal as a waste.

In a tweet Tuesday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wrote that she was disappointed about the money.

"Disappointed the House is going to waste half a million of taxpayers $$ to defend discriminatory," Gillibrand tweeted.

And Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) said, called the deal a "legal boondoggle."

“The hypocrisy of this legal boondoggle is mind-blowing," Hammill said. "Spea! ker Boehner is spending half a million dollars of taxpayer money to defend discrimination. If Republicans were really interested in cutting spending, this should be at the top of the list.”

In response, Speaker John Boehner 's (R-Ohio) spokesman Michael Steel said that if President Obama hadn't decided to order the Department of Justice to stop defending the law, House Republicans wouldn't be paying Clement.

“Obviously, this whole thing would be unnecessary if the White House and the Justice Department would do their job and defend a law that was passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by the president of the United States â€" a Democratic president, at that,” Steel said Tuesday.

The back and forth comes as Boehner and Pelosi traded letters concerning defending DOMA. Boehner on Monday called on Pelosi to join him in using funds from the Department of Justice that would have gone to defend the law for the House's expenses in the ma! tter. In response, Pelosi said she disagreed with defending th! e law an d blamed Boehner for keeping Democrats on the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, which is handling organizing the House's defense of DOMA, in the dark. Pelosi said that Democrats had not properly informed that House Republicans had retained Clement and of his salary.

Committee on House Administration Chairman Rep. Daniel Lungren (R-Calif.) approved the contract Friday with Clement's law firm.

Read Clement's contract here.