Speaker John Boehner today tore into the White House over its decision to no longer defend an anti-gay marriage law, vowing to continue his efforts to provide legal support for the law.

Speaking at the 2011 Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., the Ohio Republican condemned the Obama administration’s decision to not defend the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court.

Boehner told the gathering of conservative activists that, “If the Justice Department isn’t going to defend this act passed by Congress, then we will.”

He also warned that Republicans will strip funding from the Justice Department’s budget to pay for the defense efforts.

“We’ll take away the money from the Justice Department, who’s supposed to enforce it, and we will,” Boehner said. The House GOP leadership recently finalized a contract with Bancroft PLLC for $1.5 million to defend the law in court.

Boehner’s address to the conference was largely his standard stump speech on the economy and the Obama administration, despite the social conservative tilt of the meeting. Indeed, other than his mention of DOMA, Boehner only briefly touched on the other big ticket issue for summit-goers — abortion.

Noting the fights over banning federal funding for abortion during the health care debate, Boehner vowed that “we’re going to continue to press to make this the law of the land” before saying, “Respect for life has never been a political issue for me.”