Scalise to attend Charleston funeral

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), whose 2002 speech to a white supremacist group sparked controversy last year, will join the congressional delegation traveling to Charleston, S.C., for the funeral of the pastor killed in a mass shooting at a black church.

Scalise’s office confirmed to The Hill that he’ll attend the services for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who also served as a South Carolina state lawmaker. Politico first reported that Scalise would attend, along with Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). 

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is leading the bipartisan delegation, his office announced. 

{mosads}Scalise admitted he spoke to a white supremacist group while he served in the state legislature. That incident, coupled with his Statehouse votes against an apology for slavery and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, sparked criticism and calls from some for him to step down from his leadership post.

Scalise last year called the speech a “mistake I regret.”

House Republican leadership decided not to schedule votes on Friday to allow lawmakers to attend the funeral. It will be the House’s last day before the July 4 recess. 

A significant number of lawmakers, including the South Carolina delegation, are expected to attend the service, where President Obama will eulogize Pinckney. Obama met Pinckney, an early supporter of the then-senator, while on the campaign trail in 2008, according to The Associated Press.

This story was updated at 5:09 p.m.