Appropriations Bills Overview
The process of completing passage of the Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations bills was an early order of business for the 111th Congress. The Omnibus Appropriations Bill, 2009 (H.R. 1105) retained most pro-life riders but resumed funding the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at an increased level and exempted the UNFPA from the restrictions of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, despite the organization’s continued support of China’s coercive population control program. For Fiscal Year 2010, support for the UNFPA has continued. Other key developments include: (1) funding for family planning, domestic and international, continues to increase, without regard to the role family planning organizations play in performing and promoting abortion; (2) efforts are being made to reverse the Dornan Amendment that prevents all congressionally appropriated funds from being used to perform elective abortions in the District of Columbia; (3) funding for abstinence-only education programs is being eliminated; (4) one Senate committee has reported out legislation that eliminates the restriction on abortion coverage in the federal employee health benefits program; (5) another Senate committee has voted to codify President Obama’s January 23 memorandum overturning the Mexico City Policy, which had denied U.S. funds to organizations that perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning in poor nations. | |
