White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday state laws enabling anti-LGBT discrimination like the “religious freedom” measure in Mississippi can be “outright mean-spirited.”

Earnest addressed the Mississippi law in response to a question from the Washington Blade immediately after news broke early Tuesday afternoon Gov. Phil Bryant had signed House Bill 1523 into law.

“I have to acknowledge this is the first time I’m hearing about the Mississippi law, but if it is as you described, the president and the administration has long been on the side of justice and equality, and some of the laws that we’ve seen passed that target LGBT Americans are not consistent with those values of fairness and equality,” Earnest said. “And in some cases, those laws are outright mean-spirited, and it’s not something that most Americans are comfortable with.”

Hours after PayPal announced it had cancelled a plan to expand to North Carolina, costing the state an estimated $4 million and 400 jobs, Earnest referenced the economic consequences facing the Tar Heel State and other jurisdictions passing anti-LGBT laws.

“Passing laws that put those companies, employees or their customers at greater risk of being discriminated against is not a hospitable business environment,” Earnest said. “And look, the companies themselves are going to pass judgment on this, and they’re going to have to decide what impact this is going to have on any range of decision that they may make about traveling to the state of North Carolina, about doing business in the state of North Carolina about locating in the state of North Carolina. Businesses are going to have to make those kinds of decisions for themselves, but clearly laws like this will be a factor in those decisions.”

Asked for an update on the investigation the Obama administration is conducting on whether it would cut federal funds for North Carolina as a result of its anti-LGBT law and if a similar investigation could occur in other states like Mississippi, Earnest deferred to individual agencies.

“You’d have to actually ask the individual agencies for a timeframe about when a decision will be made,” Earnest said. “You’d also have to ask those agencies about whether or not the law that apparently was signed into law in Mississippi would trigger a similar review.”

Earnest said any decision the agencies might make to cut funds as a result of anti-LGBT laws will be made in conjunction with the Justice Department and with uniformity across all agencies.