By Jim Wolf WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Veteran Democratic Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas said on Friday he had switched parties to become a Republican after being denied funds for his district for the first time.
In a move that widens the Republicans' majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, Hall said the chairman of the Appropriations Committee had "zeroed out" his district simply because he was a Democrat.
"This is the first time, I've just been zeroed out," he said in a telephone interview. "I've always said that if being a Democrat hurt my district, I'd either resign, retire or switch parties."
"And it hurt my district this time," Hall said of his requests for road projects and about $13 million in funds for the University of Texas at Tyler.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Ralph Regula "wouldn't give me what I was entitled to simply because I was a Democrat," he said.
Regula could not immediately be reached for comment.
Hall, 80, was first elected to the House in 1980. The ranking Democrat on the science committee on Science and a senior member of the energy and commerce panel, said he had long been rated as one of the most conservative Democrats.
Before Hall's move, the House had 228 Republicans, 205 Democrats, 1 Democrat-leaning independent and one vacancy, according to the House's Office of the Clerk.
President Bush (news - web sites) welcomed Hall, a long-time friend of the Bush family, to the Republican Party.
"He is a well-respected leader of the highest integrity, and a tireless advocate for the people of Texas," the president said in a statement from Crawford, Texas, where he spent the New Year holiday.
Hall announced his party switch after filing for re-election as a Republican.
Regula, an Ohio Republican, "wasn't giving any of the Democrats anything," he said, referring to spending in their districts.
Other Democrats have also complained that Regula said he would kill funds for projects in their districts if they opposed him on bills he was pushing.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said he looked forward to working with Hall who he said for more than 23 years "has acted in the best interest of his constituents back home and has always put country before politics."
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