Pa. House Republicans want more oversight of its state-related universities. They blocked funding for Pitt and Temple to get it.

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania House Republicans held up funding for state-related universities Monday because they want greater oversight of the institutions, including their research and the medical care they provide.

Pennsylvania appropriates hundreds of millions of dollars each year to its four state-related universities: Temple, Lincoln, Penn State, and the University of Pittsburgh. These funds allow the quasi-public institutions to offer in-state tuition discounts to Pennsylvania residents.

Funding for the state-related universities requires a two-thirds majority vote in each chamber of the state legislature. House Republicans successfully blocked funding for Pitt and Temple, and declined to vote on Penn State on Monday night. House lawmakers approved funding for Lincoln, but rejected, 118-85, an omnibus bill to fund all four state-related universities by.

The House took no further action on the issue Tuesday.

House Republicans opposed the state funding proposals for a number of reasons, House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler said. Some opposed the proposals for raising the universities’ tuition, while state-owned schools froze it again this year. Some antiabortion Republicans opposed funding Pitt over its fetal tissue research, and others opposed giving Penn State its annual appropriation due to its health system’s care for transgender children — both of which have become hot-button topics nationwide.

Cutler said at a news conference Monday morning that the bills would be held up because House Democrats have used “parliamentary gimmicks” to block their members from amending the bills without debate.

“If there’s an expectation that Republicans will support something, they need to earn our votes,” Cutler said. “They need to work with us and include us in the process, not silence us.”

Democratic and Republican leaders both requested that the House reconsider the votes on a future day, meaning that the state-related universities still have a chance to get their state funding.

Cutler said late Monday that House Republicans are “ready, willing, and able” to return to the state-related university debates when Democrats are ready to hold the schools accountable.

House Minority Appropriations Chair Rep. Seth Grove (R., York) said Republicans also rejected the higher education funding bills, in part, because the budget deal isn’t done yet. The state budget is due on Friday.

“We’re not going to put our pockets up for votes without knowing what the final play is in the big picture in terms of the overall budget,” Grove added.

House Republicans have aired their grievances against Pitt for years, and successfully held up the state budget deal last year for a few days. Some GOP caucus members oppose funding Pitt due to its research using fetal tissue obtained during voluntary abortions. Others are still upset with its former chancellor, Mark Nordenberg, who served on the state’s redistricting commission and voted for new House maps that pushed Republicans out of power. (Under the new maps, Democrats won a one-seat majority). Some House GOP members say that Pitt has only provided empty promises in recent years.

University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer said eliminating funding for Pitt would jeopardize tuition discounts for Pennsylvania students and families.

“We look forward to continuing to engage in good-faith discussions with all members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, especially in relation to making Pennsylvania more competitive and moving the state beyond ranking second-to-last in the nation in funding for higher education,” Stonesifer said.

This year, the 23 Republican state representatives in the conservative Freedom Caucus spoke out against Penn State’s health system, which provides gender-affirming care to minors.

“Our objective is to get them to come to the table, discuss these programs, roll them back, provide true medical care for issues like precocious puberty, but stop catering to an agenda that really just uses children as political opponents,” said Rep. David Rowe (R., Union), who is the caucus vice chair.

Rowe said he is opposed to Penn State’s offering of care to transgender children, including puberty blockers for minors and referrals for surgical transitions.

Penn State Health told The Inquirer the Freedom Caucus is making “untrue statements.”

The health system said its gender health clinic does not see patients under the age of 10 for any reason, and does not use puberty blockers in children under 10 for gender dysphoria.

“None of the funds appropriated to Penn State University and that the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus is seeking to block flow to Penn State Health clinical activities,” it said. “Penn State Health adheres to well-accepted, evidence-based international guidelines for the care of gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults.”

Penn State Health reiterated that it does not perform gender-affirming surgery on minors, but patients and their guardians may choose to self-refer to providers outside of Penn State Health. It also said puberty blockers may be used for the purpose of stopping puberty in children whose bodies start developing too early, known as precocious puberty.

“Puberty blockers are temporary, reversible interventions with decades of safety data to support their use,” it said.

Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.

DaniRae Renno is an intern with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association.