24 Hours With Cicilline

The Washington Blade spent a day with David Cicilline, the Rhode Island congressman who last year became the fourth openly gay person elected to the House of Representatives.

Cicilline, a Democrat, took four meetings the day the Blade followed him -- most had to do with maintaining funding for programs that House Republicans desperately want to cut. Cicilline was lobbied by a Rhode Island group that hoped to keep Medicaid funding intact, while the CEO of a nonprofit asked the congressman to fight for Housing and Urban Development money.

"The Republicans are moving forward with a dangerous spending bill, one that continues to give rewards to the rich and literally guts the initiatives most meaningful to middle class families," Cicilline told the Blade. "Simply put, the Republicans' spending bill is irresponsible and tone deaf to the needs of a healing nation."

Read the full story here.