New
rules set to govern the House in the 113th Congress expressly allow
House leaders to continue spending federal dollars on the legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act.
The rules also state that the legal team
involved in the DOMA cases speaks for the entire House, a point
disputed by a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. House
Republicans moved to take up legal responsibility for defending the law
when President Barack Obama and the Justice Department announced that
they believed the law to be unconstitutional.