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WASHINGTON – Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., today voted in favor of legislation that prevents the executive branch from funding activist organizations with payments from mortgage settlement cases. 

“Unelected bureaucrats have no business using these settlement funds to subsidize special interest groups with little accountability,” said Foxx. “Once again the Obama administration is undermining the will of Congress. They are taking money away from deserving victims and diverting it to groups that align with the administration’s positions.” 

An investigation by the House Judiciary Committee discovered the U.S. Department of Justice has been requiring defendants entering into settlement agreements with the federal government to donate money to left-leaning activist groups. Non-victim third-party groups have received over $880 million dollars as part of settlement agreements in the past two years. In some cases, the Obama administration is using these mandatory donations to restore funding that Congress specifically cut.

H.R. 5063, the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act, bars all government agencies from requiring defendants to donate money to outside groups as part of their settlement agreements with the federal government. It ensures money recovered by the government goes directly to victims or is returned to the Treasury where it is subject to the congressional appropriations process.

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U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx represents North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District and is the elected Republican Conference Secretary. Dr. Foxx is the chair of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and serves as Vice Chair of the House Rules Committee.