Prepares to Adjourn, Three Weeks Before Election
Clinton's Veto Power Results
in Mixed Bag
for 105th Congress

By NRLC Federal Legislative Office

WASHINGTON (Oct. 12) - - A last-minute conflict on foreign aid policy caps a two-year Congress in which pro-life forces, with the active cooperation of the House and Senate Republican leadership, won many roll call votes and made some tangible gains.

But on several key issues, pro-life forces were stymied by Clinton's veto or veto threats, and by the lack of the supermajorities needed to overcome obstacles erected by pro- abortion senators. That was the fate, for example, of both the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Child Custody Protection Act.

Congress is expected to leave town for the year by October 14, which is less than three weeks before the November 3 election. After that, if pro-life strength in the Senate increases by several votes, both bills could become passable early next year.

At NRL News deadline on October 12, it appeared that a pro-life proposal to curb the Administration's promotion of abortion through the foreign aid program would also fall victim to a veto threat.

For the second Congress in a row, President Clinton used his veto to prevent enactment of a national ban on partial-birth abortions. After the bill passed by the largest margins yet, Clinton vetoed it on October 10, 1997. The House overrode the veto, but in the Senate the pro-life margin was 64-36 - - three votes short of the necessary two-thirds margin. Several senators who voted with Clinton are now in tight re-election races.

In a speech to the national convention of the Christian Coalition, immediately following the vote, pro-life Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Ms.) said that if three more pro-life senators are elected in November, he will bring up the bill within 30 days of the start of the new Congress in January, and "it will be over for this procedure." On September 22, the Child Custody Protection Act (S. 1645) died when supporters were unable to muster the supermajority needed to overcome obstacles erected by the Senate Democratic leadership. The vote to "invoke cloture" and advance the bill was 54-45, six short of the 60 votes required. Under pressure from the Democratic leadership, several Democratic senators who said they supported the substance of the bill nevertheless voted against cloture.

The bill would make it a federal crime for a non-parent to transport a minor across a state line to obtain a secret abortion, if this abridges the rights of parents under a state law requiring parental or judicial involvement in the minor's abortion decision. President Clinton opposes the bill, insisting that non-custodial relatives - - for example, a parent's mother- in-law - - must be allowed to take a minor girl across state lines for a secret abortion, without a parent's knowledge or consent.

Senator Spencer Abraham (R-Mi.), the chief Senate sponsor of the bill, vowed to renew his push for enactment of the bill early in 1999.

Tangible Gains

On some other important issues, pro-life forces emerged from the 1997-98 Congress with substantive gains.

Early in the Congress, the NRLC-backed Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act (HR 1003) was approved by overwhelming margins in both houses, and was signed into law by President Clinton. The bill prohibits the use of federal funds or facilities to perform "assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing."

In addition, during 1997 pro-life forces won enactment of a strengthened version of the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding law that restricts federal funding of abortion. The new version prohibits any state from using federal funds to pay any part of the premium of a managed-care plan (such as an HMO) that includes abortion, except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest.

In a related area, the massive 1997 "balanced budget act" contained three new provisions that were supported by NRLC.

In a section of the bill creating a large new federal program to give money to states to provide medical coverage for millions of uninsured "children" (defined as persons under age 19), the bill contained NRLC-backed language to prohibit the use of such " kidcare" funds to pay for any part of a health policy that includes any coverage of abortion (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest).

A second provision prevented states from applying certain punishments to HMOs that refuse to provide abortion coverage to Medicaid recipients.

A third section made it possible for older Americans who are Medicare beneficiaries to add their own funds to government payments, in order to purchase private fee-for-service insurance, which unlike other Medicare alternatives would protect them from rationing and involuntary denial of lifesaving medical treatment.

Congress also tightened up an existing ban on federal funding of harmful experimentation on living human embryos. This law is known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, after its sponsors, pro- life Reps. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.) and Roger Wicker (R-Ms.). It was originally enacted in 1995. In 1997, the language was strengthened to ensure that federal funds cannot be used to clone human embryos by the method recently used to produce a now- famous sheep named Dolly.

Throughout the Congress, pro-abortion forces offered numerous amendments to block renewal of pro-life provisions in various annual appropriations bills, but all of these pro-abortion amendments failed in both houses.

For example, attempts to repeal a ban on client-paid abortions at U.S. military medical facilities was rejected 232-190 in the House and 49-44 in the Senate, and a ban on abortion coverage in federal employees' health insurance was renewed 239-183 in the House and 54-45 in the Senate.

Foreign Aid Issue

At NRL News deadline on October 12, White House officials were telling congressional leaders that President Clinton would veto a $500 billion omnibus spending bill unless a provision to curb the Administration's pro-abortion foreign aid activities is dropped.

The omnibus bill will provide funding for numerous federal agencies through September 30, 1999. The White House is not contesting provisions that would extend various pro-life appropriations riders enacted in past years, including the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortions.

However, the White House says that the entire package will be vetoed if it contains new pro-life language authored by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chairman of the House Pro- Life Caucus, to cut off U.S. "population assistance" foreign aid funds from any organization that works to weaken or repeal the abortion laws of foreign nations, or that violates such laws.

In the face of this threat, it seems likely that the Smith provision will be dropped for now, but that congressional Republican leaders will also refuse to add $819 million in "back dues" for the United Nations, which the Administration badly wants.

"To President Clinton, it's more important to keep happy a constituency of international pro-abortion activists - - including his wife - - than it is to obtain the U.N. dues that he says are so essential," commented NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson.

Congress has already approved a separate bill (HR 1757) that contains the Smith language, along with authorization for the $819 million in U.N. "arrears." But Administration officials have said that Clinton will not accept the pro-life language even if this means that the U.N. dues are not paid, and that the President therefore will veto HR 1757 when it is delivered to him after Congress finishes its legislative work for the year.

[The complete NRLC Congressional Scorecard for 1997-98 is included in this issue of NRL News as an insert.]

[For resource materials on pro-life issues in Congress, including partial-birth abortion and legislation to restrict free speech about politicians, see the NRLC site on the World Wide Web at www.nrlc.org.]