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News From Capitol Hill: Two Wins. One Loss. What Next?
Senate votes to repeal the Global Gag Rule Led by family planning champion, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the amendment seeks to open the doors for family planning funding that President Bush closed. Passage of Senator Boxer's amendment to S.925, the 2004 State Department Authorization bill, blocks President Bush from withholding funding from foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide legal abortion services or lobby to make abortion legal or more available in their own country. The Senate's vote to pass Senator Boxer's amendment paves the way to insuring that women and families around the world will have access to family planning and reproductive healthcare. With almost one-half of the global population under the age of twenty-five, now is not the time to create roadblocks that inhibit access to life-saving reproductive health care. For more information and to find out how your Senator voted, Click Here.
House votes to eliminate UNFPA funding
President Bush's attempt to expand the Global Gag Rule thwarted! Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), a long-standing supporter of international family planning aid, recognized yet another move by the Bush Administration to block critical monies for family planning. Through his leadership, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Sept. 5, approved language to stop the Administration's attempt to expand the gag rule. The committee's action came during consideration of the 2004 Fiscal Year Commerce-Justice-State (CJS) appropriations bill. The House has already completed its version of the CJS appropriations measure, so no similar anti-family planning policy is expected to emerge in the House. However, this sets the stage for debate on the issue when the House-Senate conference committee convenes to work out the differences between their respective CJS bills. This committee vote again puts the Senate on record in opposition to the Bush enforced global gag rule policy. Funding, Foreign Operations Appropriations and family planning The House and Senate allocations passed in their respective FY2004 Foreign Operations Appropriations bills for USAID family planning programs differ. The House proposed $425 million mirrors the President's original federal budget request. The Senate proposed a slightly higher request of $445 million, which better approaches last year's allocation of $446.5 million. Unfortunately, neither allocation even approaches the annual support that the United States promised at the 1994 Cairo Conference, nor does it approach the amount of funding needed to meet the global demand for voluntary family planning programs and services. It is uncertain what the final allocation for international family planning in FY2004 will be. If the House and Senate convene a Foreign Operations Appropriations conference committee to work out the differences between their two bills, we would advocate for the higher Senate allocation. Because of the pressure to complete negotiations all of the federal appropriations bills and the President's request for a supplemental allocation for our efforts in Iraq, the House and Senate may conglomerate all of those bills into one "omnibus" appropriations bill - effectively limiting the opportunity for individual Senators and Representatives to meticulously discuss each of their differences on each of the appropriations bills. Either path does not lead us to adequate funding for family planning.
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Photos from the Sierra Club collection; all rights reserved.
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By a vote of 43-53, the U.S. Senate backed a repeal of the Global Gag Rule this summer! The President signed the global gag rule into law on his first few days in office. Since then, this anti-democratic ban has negatively impacted funding for family planning organizations around the world - and access to family planning services.
Family planning advocates suffered a huge defeat in July. By a narrow margin of 216 to 211, the House of Representatives voted to eliminate U.S. support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The House adopted an amendment offered by Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and supported by the Bush Administration. The vote struck down an earlier provision in the 2004 State Department Authorization bill aimed at restoring funding to UNFPA. UNFPA works in over 150 countries to ensure that women have access to voluntary family planning, economic opportunities, and education - all of which contribute to increased opportunities for women to choose the size and spacing of their families. Enabling access to voluntary, safe and affordable family planning services and empowering women and girls helps to slow population growth, ultimately securing a more sustainable future for families throughout the world.