Life Advocacy Briefing

Senate Votes to Allow States to Disqualify Planned Parenthood

THE SENATE THURSDAY PASSED THE HOUSE-PASSED joint resolution – HJRes-43 – which, in effect, repeals an Obama Regime regulation barring states from disqualifying Planned Parenthood from Title X (Ten) “family planning” funds. We publish the Senate roll calls on the procedural motion to bring HJRes-43 to a vote and on the resolution itself near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing. Ironically, the House roll call we had scheduled for publication this week is on the same issue; it is a procedural vote in the House (on Feb. 15) which was required in order for HJRes-43 to come to a vote in the first place.

The vote on the resolution could be considered a test vote on the defunding of Planned Parenthood by the federal government itself, and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced last week, according to Claire Chretien for LifeSiteNews.com, that he plans to move forward such a proposal via the 51-vote budget reconciliation process. Should he do so, last Thursday’s votes suggest the pro-life community could achieve one of our top goals this year, despite the disappointment of seeing the first attempt at budget reconciliation withdrawn without a House vote. (Readers: Please call your US Representative now and ask him or her to defund Planned Parenthood; Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121.)

Though GOP Senators Susan Collins (ME) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) attempted to block HJRes-43 from coming to a vote, last Thursday’s procedural motion did pass, as did the resolution itself, on an identical roll call. We were particularly cheered to see Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) appear on the Senate floor at the last moment, using a walker, to vote in favor of giving the states back their authority to manage Title X funds according to their own standards; because of Senators Murkowski and Collins, Sen. Isakson’s vote was required even to bring the matter to a tie; the procedural motion Thursday was Sen. Isakson’s first vote since mid-February when he underwent surgery on his back. We appreciate the fine speech given by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) in support of the resolution after its adoption.

The tie vote on each motion was announced by Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding and who proceeded to cast the deciding vote on the motion to proceed and on the resolution; both motions carried 51 to 50; because of the nature of the resolution, it required only a simple majority to pass.

It was encouraging to us to see the priority given this resolution by the President and Vice President, since Mr. Pence is seldom physically present in the Senate but, it appears, does take the helm when needed for what he and the President must see as a good cause. It was refreshing, too, to see the Senate work its will by a simple majority vote, outside the oppressive, Minority-empowering 60-vote cloture rule. (Our readers will find elsewhere in this edition a commentary written by our editor on the need for the Senate to move past “cloture.”)

Gorsuch Nomination to Move This Week

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) ANNOUNCED last Tuesday that the Senate will vote this Friday, April 7, on the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. The vote is scheduled to be completed before Senators – and their House counterparts – depart Capitol Hill for a two-week recess. The nomination is expected to clear the Judiciary Committee today, Monday.

“‘We’re going to get Judge Gorsuch confirmed,’ [Sen.] McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill,” quoted by CNN writers Ted Barrett and Ashley Killough. “‘There will be an opportunity for the Democrats to invoke cloture; we’ll see where that ends,’” Sen. McConnell commented in the CNN story, suggesting it will “‘be really up to [Senate Democrats] how the process to confirm Judge Gorsuch goes forward.’”

If the motion to move Judge Gorsuch to a vote falls short of the required 60 votes, note the CNN reporters, “Republicans could change the rules and confirm [Judge] Gorsuch with a simple majority – a decision known as the ‘nuclear option’ – though the move,” the CNN writers opine, “would be highly contentious.”

California Goes After David Daleiden

CALIFORNIA’s APPOINTED ATTORNEY GENERAL, former US Rep. Xavier Becerra (D), brought felony charges last week against pro-life undercover whistleblower David Daleiden and his associate, Sandra Merritt, for allegedly violating privacy rights of Planned Parenthood personnel in their videotaped interviews exposing the abortion goliath’s involvement in baby-body-parts trafficking.

“‘These bogus charges from Planned Parenthood’s political cronies are fake news,’ said [Mr.] Daleiden in a statement to LifeSiteNews. ‘They triedthe same collusion with corrupt officials in Houston, Texas, and both the charges and the district attorney were thrown out. The public knows,’” he said in Ms. Chretien’s interview, “‘the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners like StemExpress and DV Biologics – currently being prosecuted in Orange County [California] – who have harvested and sold aborted baby body parts for profit for years in direct violation of state and federal law. I look forward to showing the entire world what is on our yet-unreleased video tapes of Planned Parenthood’s criminal baby-body-parts enterprise.’”

The day after the charges were announced, the intrepid Mr. Daleiden’s Center for Medical Progress released new undercover video footage last week showing an interview filmed at a “top-level Planned Parenthood trade show,” according to a CMP news release. Readers may view the video footage online at www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2017/03/planned-parenthood-abortionist-pay-attention-to-whos-in-the-room-to-deal-with-infants-born-alive/.

“Watch a long-time Planned Parenthood abortionist explain,” notes the news release, “that if a baby is born with signs of life in a late-term abortion, ‘the key is, you need to pay attention to who’s in the room.’”

Needed: Senate Rule Reform Now

Commentary by Penny Pullen, former Illinois State Representative and editor, Life Advocacy Briefing

            In all the after-action analysis of the March 24 failure of the ObamaCare repeal/replacement proposal in the US House, little has been said about the frustration faced by many House Members in knowing the proposal – regardless of the intricacies of House negotiations – would face immense difficulty in the Senate if it would indeed pass the House.

            We make that observation not only because a handful of Senators in the Majority Party had vowed either to block the House proposal or to so alter it as to make it unrecognizable – not only because of these individuals and their own ideas and demands but also because of the Senate’s rules.

            Though many have taken note of the Senate’s so-called “Byrd Rule,” which relates to limitations on the content of budget reconciliation proposals, we contend a greater problem is in the Senate’s 60-vote supermajority requirement to bring virtually any proposal to a vote – the “cloture” rule. It is that rule which prompted the GOP House and Senate Leaders to choose the budget reconciliation vehicle (exempt from the 60-vote rule) for ObamaCare repeal/replacement and, just as important though less often noted publicly, the disqualification of Planned Parenthood from taxpayer funding.

            It was the choice of “reconciliation” that broke the ObamaCare repeal/replacement into three separate stages, with stage three being a later proposal – requiring 60 votes – that House conservatives were demanding in March, demanding such critical reforms as opening the health insurance market to robust competition by expressly authorizing in federal law the marketing of policies across state lines. Because of the Senate’s 60-vote cloture rule – and because of the Minority Party’s stubborn refusal either to repeal or to reform their pet healthcare takeover legislation – conservatives were right to fear that “stage three” would never come.

            But it’s not just the building of a free-market health insurance system that is jeopardized by the cloture rule in these days of determined Democratic Party fanaticism. The 60-vote cloture rule has stopped every reasonable pro-life legislative proposal for the past eight years.

            Those Americans who have blamed Congress for legislative inaction over the past eight years – especially since the GOP regained control of the House in 2011 – ought instead to be blaming the Senate’s unyielding embrace of its Minority-empowerment cloture rule.

            Defund Planned Parenthood? House says “yes;” Senate never votes on it. Protect young girls from being transported across state lines for abortions behind their parents’ backs? House says “yes;” Senate never votes on it. Barring abortions on babies aged 20 weeks or older and subject to excruciating pain? House says “yes;” Senate never votes on it.

            It is the Senate – regardless of which party was in control – which sheltered Barack Obama from having to demonstrate how merciless he was as President; if Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry generally did not want a bill to be enacted into law, it simply never saw the light of day in the Senate, because the abortion industry controls enough Senate votes to block “cloture” every time.

            Confirm Neil Gorsuch? Get rid of the 60-vote rule. Repeal/replace ObamaCare? Get rid of the 60-vote rule. Defund Planned Parenthood and redirect “women’s healthcare” grants to legitimate community health centers, as in Sen. Ernst’s gestating legislation? Get rid of the 60-vote rule.

            The Senate does not have to worry about losing its “distinctiveness” as a “deliberative” body. It will still be unique, as its Members are elected statewide rather than in districts, and each Senator is subject to voter accountability only every six years. Those are characteristics which will still have the effect of slowing down proposals and facilitating robust debate. But Minority control is not only problematic, it is unAmerican, and it is time for the Senate to put this sullied tradition into history’s dustbin.

Senate Voting Records

HJRes-43 – Procedural motion to bring Resolution forward to Overturn Obama Regulation Forcing States to Fund Planned Parenthood – Mar. 30, 2017 – Adopted – 51-50 (needing a simple majority) (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Sessions & Shelby/AL, Sullivan/AK, Flake & McCain/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Rubio/FL, Isakson & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Cochran & Wicker/MS, Blunt/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Heller/NV, Burr & Tillis/NC, Hoeven/ND, Portman/OH, Inhofe & Lankford/OK, Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Alexander & Corker/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Hatch & Lee/UT, Capito/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY. And Vice President Mike Pence, breaking the tie.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Murkowski/AK; Feinstein & Harris/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Nelson/FL, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Donnelly/IN, Collins & King(I)/ME, Cardin & VanHollen/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Franken & Klobuchar/MN, McCaskill/MO, Tester/MT, Cortez-Masto/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Booker & Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Heitkamp/ND, Brown/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Casey/PA, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Leahy & Sanders/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Manchin/WV, Baldwin/WI.

HJRes-43 –Overturning Obama Regulation Forcing States to Fund Planned Parenthood – Mar. 30, 2017 – Adopted – 51-50 (needing a simple majority) (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Sessions & Shelby/AL, Sullivan/AK, Flake & McCain/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Rubio/FL, Isakson & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Cochran & Wicker/MS, Blunt/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Heller/NV, Burr & Tillis/NC, Hoeven/ND, Portman/OH, Inhofe & Lankford/OK, Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Alexander & Corker/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Hatch & Lee/UT, Capito/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY. And Vice President Mike Pence, breaking the tie.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Murkowski/AK; Feinstein & Harris/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Nelson/FL, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Donnelly/IN, Collins & King(I)/ME, Cardin & VanHollen/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Franken & Klobuchar/MN, McCaskill/MO, Tester/MT, Cortez-Masto/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Booker & Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Heitkamp/ND, Brown/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Casey/PA, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Leahy & Sanders/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Manchin/WV, Baldwin/WI.

House Voting Record

H-Res-123 – Rule for consideration of HJ-Res-43 Overturning Obama Regulation Forcing States to Fund Planned Parenthood – Adoption of Rule – Feb. 15­, 2017 – Passed – 233-188 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Biggs, Franks, Gosar, McSally, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Denham, Hunter, Issa, Knight, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao, Walters/CA; Buck, Coffman, Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Curbelo, DeSantis, Diaz-Balart, Dunn, Gaetz, Mast, Posey, F.Rooney, T.Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Rutherford, Webster, Yoho/FL; Allen, Collins, Ferguson, Graves, Hice, Loudermilk, A.Scott, Woodall/GA; Labrador, Simpson/ID; Bost, R.Davis, Hultgren, Kinzinger, LaHood, Shimkus/IL; Banks, Brooks, Bucshon, Hollingsworth, Messer, Rokita, Walorski/IN; Blum, King, Young/IA; Jenkins, Marshall, Yoder/KS; Barr, Comer, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers/KY; Abraham, Graves, Higgins, Johnson, Scalise/LA; Poliquin/ME; Harris/MD; Amash, Bergman, Bishop, Huizenga, Mitchell, Moolenaar, Trott, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Lewis, Paulsen/MN; Harper, Kelly, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith, Wagner/MO; Bacon, Fortenberry, Smith/NE; Amodei/NV; Frelinghuysen, Lance, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, Donovan, Faso, Katko, King, Reed, Stefanik, Tenney, Zeldin/NY; Budd, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, Jones, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger, Rouzer, Walker/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Davidson, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Renacci, Stivers, Tiberi, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Bridenstine, Cole, Lucas, Mullin, Russell/OK; Walden/OR; Barletta, Costello, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Kelly, Marino, Meehan, Murphy, Perry, Rothfus, Shuster, Smucker, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Gowdy, Rice, Sanford, Wilson/SC; Noem/SD; Black, Blackburn, DesJarlais, Duncan, Fleischmann, Kustoff, Roe/TN; Arrington, Babin, Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Granger, Hensarling, Hurd, S.Johnson, Marchant, McCaul, Olson, Ratcliffe, Sessions, Smith, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Chaffetz, Love, Stewart/UT; Brat, Comstock, Garrett, Goodlatte, Griffith, Taylor, Wittman/VA; Herrera-Beutler, McMorris-Rodgers, Newhouse, Reichert/WA; Jenkins, McKinley, Mooney/WV; Duffy, Gallagher, Grothman, Sensenbrenner/WI; Cheney/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Gallego, Grijalva, O’Halleran, Sinema/AZ; Aguilar, Barragan, Bass, Bera, Brownley, Carbajal, Cardenas, Chu, Correa, Costa, Davis, DeSaulnier, Eshoo, Garamendi, Huffman, Khanna, Lee, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Napolitano, Panetta, Pelosi, Peters, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; DeGette, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Himes, Larson/CT; Blunt-Rochester/DE; Castor, Crist, Demings, Deutch, Frankel, Hastings, Lawson, Murphy, Soto, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, D.Scott/GA; Gabbard, Hanabusa/HI; Bustos, D.Davis, Foster, Gutierrez, Kelly, Krishnamoorthi, Lipinski, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky, Schneider/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Loebsack/IA; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Pingree/ME; Brown, Delaney, Hoyer, Raskin, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes/MD; Capuano, Clark, Keating, Kennedy, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Tsongas/MA; Conyers, Dingell, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Peterson, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Kihuen, Rosen/NV; Kuster, Shea-Porter/NH; Gottheimer, Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Sires, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Espaillat, Higgins, Jeffries, Lowey, C.Maloney, S.Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Rice, Serrano, Slaughter, Suozzi, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Price/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Boyle, Brady, Cartwright, Doyle, Evans/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn/SC; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Castro, Cuellar, Doggett, Gonzalez, A.Green, G.Green, Jackson-Lee, E.B.Johnson, O’Rourke, Veasey, Vela/TX; Welch/VT; Beyer, Connolly, McEachin, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Jayapal, Kilmer, Larsen, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not Voting: Carter/GA; Roskam/IL; Cummings/MD; Lynch/MA;Zinke/MT; Titus/NV; Payne/NJ; Blumenauer/OR; Mulvaney/SC; Poe/TX; Ryan/WI.