Congress still open for business this December

In session
December 2004

Bishops' official applauds passage of pro-life ‘Conscience Protection'

Congress still open for business this December
NETWORK Legislative Update: November 29, 2004

Congress is still going! Take this opportunity to get support for bills that will be back in the new session.

Congress did not adjourn last week as expected. The members returned for the "lame duck” session after the election to finish work on the FY 05 budget. They also hoped to complete Intelligence overhaul legislation so it would not die with the end of the 108th Congress.

The nine unfinished appropriations bills were rolled into a massive 3,016-page omnibus measure. After finishing touches were completed close to midnight the previous day, the House approved the measure on November 20th by a 344-51 vote. Shortly after, the Senate cleared the bill 65-30. However, controversy erupted when a staff member discovered a controversial provision that would allow the chairs of the Appropriations Subcommittees and their staff to look at individual tax returns as part of their oversight activities, without any penalties for making the information public. The Senate adopted an "enrollment resolution” to strike the controversial provision. It then had to be sent back to the House, but members had already recessed for the holiday. The House is expected to vote on the enrollment resolution the week of December 6th.

As well, the continuing inability of members to agree on a final Intelligence Bill will keep Congress in session. Speaker of the House Hastert (R-IL) called off an expected vote on the Intelligence Bill when it was clear that there was not a majority of Republicans in favor of it, even though it seemed that the overhaul bill would have passed with a bipartisan majority if it was not postponed.

The 108th Congress remains open which provides a further opportunity to ask your Representatives to support legislation that will be re-introduced in the next session. While members are in their home districts ask them to support the following resolutions. The more cosponsors these bills have, the better positioned they will be for the next session.

Visit any of the following for more information on these bills:

National Affordable Housing Trust Fund: Discharge Petition H.RES. 748 / S 1411

SMART Security: H. CON. RES. 392 -Sensible, Multilateral American Response to Terrorism (SMART) security platform for the 21st century.

Closing of the School of the Americas: H.R. 1258 Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2003.

FYI:
The White House Comment line is 202-456-1111 or e-mail president@whitehouse.gov.

Vice President Cheney at 202-456-7549 or e-mail vice-president@whitehouse.gov.

Capitol Switchboard is 202-224-3121 or search here for contact information.

Bishops' official applauds passage of pro-life 'Conscience Protection'
A federal spending bill passed by Congress in November includes protection against discrimination for hospitals and health care providers who decline to provide, pay for, or refer for abortions. The provision, known as the "Hyde-Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment," is named after its House sponsors, Reps. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and Dave Weldon (R-Fl.).

"We applaud Congress' recognition that hospitals and other health care providers should have a right to choose not to be involved in destroying life," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq., Director of Planning and Information for the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. "Over a million abortions are done every year by willing abortion providers in this country. It is outrageous to suggest that Catholic health care providers and others with moral objections should be forced into the practice of abortion."

"The threat of discrimination is not theoretical, it is real," said Ruse. "Already, hospitals in Alaska, New Jersey, and New Mexico have been discriminated against because of their pro-life policies."

Current federal law already protects "health care entities" from having to perform or provide for abortions. The Hyde-Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment was needed because current law had been misinterpreted to protect only individual physicians and training programs, leaving hospitals, health plans, nurses, and other health care participants without protection.

"This Amendment simply clarifies what should be obvious," Ruse said. "Legal protection for 'health care entities' should include the full range of participants who provide health care—no one who provides health care should be forced to participate in abortion."

"The opposition of abortion activists to this Amendment is telling," said Ruse. "The champions of 'choice' worked to deny the choice of health care providers to choose not to perform abortion. Here's more evidence that 'pro-choice' really does mean 'pro-abortion.'"

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