Legislative Update, January 2003

Legislative Update

January 6, 2003

GENERAL
            Election Results Mean Rough Sledding for Women's Issues
            Many Priority Bills Die with 107th Congress
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
            Abortion Rights Opponents Gain Majority Control

GENERAL

Election Results Mean Rough Sledding for Women's Issues

With conservative Republicans winning back control of the Senate and expanding their majority in the House of Representatives, the outlook is not very promising for women's legislative priorities in the 108th Congress. The assumption of Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to the Senate Majority leader position does not bode well for reproductive, women's and civil rights issues. Although Frist has held himself out to be a moderate, in fact, his record is as right wing as any. Sen. Frist voted for confirmation of Attorney General John Ashcroft and super-conservative judicial nominees, for measures limiting women's abortion rights, against the minimum wage increase, against affirmation action, against broad election reforms and opposed many other progressive measures. His lack of experience and apparent right wing reflexive voting record signals a likely acceleration of regressive social and economic initiatives in the Senate.

Republicans will hold 51 Senate seats having taken the seat held by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) who perished in a plane accident just prior to the election and winning the highly contested Missouri seat held by Sen. Jean Carnahan (D). Former St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman will take the Minnesota seat and former Missouri Representative, Jim Talent (R), will replace Ms. Carnahan.

They join eight other newly elected senators, including former governor Lamar Alexander (R- Tenn.), Republican party official Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), businessman John Cornyn, R-Texas, one time presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C), former House member Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), former senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), son of a former senator, and John Sununu (R-N.H.), son of a Bush Sr. administration official. One further change is the appointment of Alaska State Representative, Lisa Murkowski (R), to her father's seat where she will serve out the remaining two years of his term. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R) defeated Alaska Lt. Governor Fran Ulmer (D) for the governorship. Ms. Murkowski brings the total number of women in the Senate to a record high of 14, five Republicans and nine Democrats.

The right wing majority of the House of Representatives tightened its control by electing 33 new members to attain a total of 229 Republican members; Democrats elected only 21 new members shrinking their total to 205 (and one Independent). The number of women elected to the House is 59, including several non-voting members, with 37 African American members, 19 Hispanic members and 4 Asian Americans. With the retirement of Rep. Dick Armey (Texas) from House Majority Leader, former Majority Whip Rep. Tom Delay (Texas) who has a reputation as a right wing trench fighter, takes over. Insiders expect that Delay will wield more power than Speaker H. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) who has demonstrated a passive leadership style.

A gain for women's accession in political life, though, is the new Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) who has a strong voting record in favor of women's reproductive rights and civil rights. Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce was appointed chair of the House Republican Conference Committee.

Many Priority Bills Die with 107th Congress

The 107th Congress adjourned with a record of scant accomplishment. Left undone were passage of 11 of the 13 key appropriations measures, reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, funding for the massive new Homeland Defense department, funding to states for extension of Unemployment Compensation payments to the thousands of workers out of jobs during this economic downturn; and numerous other priority measures.

The lack of accomplishment is due to an even party split that guaranteed gridlock. It is also due to a Republican expectation that they would prevail in the November elections and therefore did not have to compromise with Democrats.

Whether another almost even split in Senate organization for the upcoming 108th Congress means more gridlock is uncertain. In addition, the new Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), is inexperienced in a leadership role and may not have much inclination toward the necessary negotiation and compromise. Frist is also a staunch abortion rights opponent and his close relationship to George W. Bush indicates that he can be counted on to carry out the administration's regressive social and economic agendas.

A brief rundown of some of the priority bills that NOW and the women's rights advocacy community were concerned about that went to their demise in the 107th Congress are:

Equity in Prescription Insurance Contraceptive Coverage (S. 104/H.R. 1111) did not get a floor vote in the Senate as sponsors hoped would be scheduled. Advocates will have to press again next Congress and hope that there is a more favorable climate for passing this important bill.
Although various Senate and House leaders have tried to adopt a comprehensive seniors' prescription drug benefit they have not succeeded. Prescription drug costs for older women are a major concern.
A Patients' Bill of Rights remained in limbo in conference committee with conferees unable to agree; the legislation is more restrictive that one passed last Congress in the House which contained many good provisions improving health care access for women.
A similar state of limbo held the so-called Bankruptcy Reform Act (H.R. 333) which contains many regressive provisions that limit the ability of persons in financial trouble to re-organize their debts, and further empowers the credit card industry. Divorced women owed past due child support, persons suffering from catastrophic health care expenses and low income persons are those most likely harmed if this legislation becomes law. Abortion opponents prevented the bankruptcy conference report from coming to a final vote.
As might be expected, the Senate failed to bring a measure approving ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to a floor vote. This is the 23rd year that the full Senate has not acted on this international treaty that has been ratified by 170 other nations. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopted a ratification measure in August, but conservative Republicans prevented a vote of the full Senate.
Even though in each of the recent annual State of the Union messages, successive Presidents promise to support pay equity and the members of Congress clap long and hard, not a move is ever made to advance either of two good pay equity bills, the Paycheck Fairness Act (S.77/H.R. 781) and the Fair Pay Act (S. 684/H.R. 1362).
For several years running, Republicans have blocked even a modest increase in the federal minimum wage. Legislation offered by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) (S. 2538, Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2002) would hike the minimum wage in increments to $6.65 an hour within two years. Women constitute more than 60 percent of low wage workers and would benefit greatly by this increase.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Abortion Rights Opponents Gain Majority Control

With the November election results, the Senate will now have 33 solid supporters of women's reproductive rights, 48 solid opponents and 19 mixed. The House has 141 solid supporters, 224 opponents (up from 217 in the last Congress) and 69 mixed. Just about any measure limiting women's reproductive rights should have easy sailing through both bodies and George W. would quickly sign it into law. Several of the priority measures (bill numbers are not included because the legislation has to be re-introduced and assigned new numbers) are described as follows:

The so-called Partial-Birth Abortion ban (abortion procedures/vaginal abortion ban) passed the House in July, second session. It has passed in two previous Congresses, but always faced a veto from then President Clinton. It is expected to be brought up soon in the 108th Congress, perhaps around the Roe v. Wade anniversary.

The House passed in April, 2002, the Child Custody Protection Act (otherwise known as the Teen Endangerment Act). Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott indicated that the legislation would be brought up early in the new session.

The so-called Unborn Victims of Violence Act was passed by the House in April 2001, but has not ever been considered in the Senate. The legislation is part of a larger strategy to advance legal personhood for embryos and fetuses and is a right wing priority bill destined to quickly move in the next Congress.

Also, expect to see cuts in funding for family planning, both domestic and international programs. Many anti-abortion rights members of Congress are also opposed to women's access to contraception! The initial attacks have been on adolescents' access to contraception, proposing to de-fund schools that have onsite health clinics that provide reproductive health care and attempting to limit access to emergency contraception.

Although funding levels for Title X domestic family planning programs was slightly increased in the Senate version of the Health, Education, Labor appropriations bills, that legislation was not passed by the close of the 107th Congress. Funding for "abstinence-only" curricula (which prohibit discussion of contraception) have increased substantially in recent years, but was kept at at last year's level in the FY 03 Senate version. Bush has requested a near doubling of funding for abstinence-only programs in one of the three different sources (welfare, Adolescent and Family Life and the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant). When these and other appropriations measures get the floor early in 2003, look for dangerous anti-abortion rights and anti-contraception riders to be attached.

The final Foreign Operations Appropriations bill for FY '03 also remains to be adopted. It contains a White House recommendation that next year's United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) budget be cut from $34 million to $25 million and continues a provision giving the president the authority to cancel funding. Bush transferred the UNFPA's $34 million to the Untied States Agency for International Development's (USAID) maternal and child health program; the USAID's funding is cut in the House version.

The global gag rule is retained and may even be expanded from to cover HIV/AIDS prevention programs. In the Defense department FY '03 spending bill, the Murray-Snowe amendment repealing the ban on privately funded abortion services was deleted in the final conference committee report and then sent to the president for signing.

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