On Monday, Democrats in the House of Representatives learned that Republican leaders went behind their backs to privately raise the spending cap to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in the U.S. Supreme Court. This is the third time House GOPs have raised the cap, which was originally set at $500,000.

San Diego Gay & Lesbian News reports:

A spokesperson for the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) confirmed that Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), Chair the House Administration Committee, signed an updated contract to increase the spending cap to $3 million. The revised contract reads, in part:

“It is further understood and agreed that, effective January 4, 2013, the aforementioned $2,750,000.00 cap may be raised from time to time up to, but not exceeding, $3,000,000.00, up on written notice of the General Counsel to the Contractor specifying that the General Counsel is legally liable.”

“From the start, the Republican-led campaign to defend DOMA has been a practice in futility and a waste of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner.

“We believe it is only a matter of time before this offensive law is a discarded relic of a bygone era,” Pelosi and Hoyer wrote. “We look forward to the day when this measure is declared unconstitutional by the highest court in the land and when all of America’s families can know the blessings of equal protection under the law.”

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear widowed 83-year-old lesbian Edie Windsor’s challenge to DOMA in March.