On the recordMarch 20, 2010
Reclaiming my time, let me also conclude by saying that there is another problem with the health care bill that we will be looking at in a few hours tomorrow afternoon on abortion. Abortion funding will be required of the taxpayers in our country. {time} 1730 Current legislation would permit Federal funds to subsidize plans covering abortion, would permit a multi-State health plan to offer abortion coverage, and would require citizens in States that have opted out of elective abortion coverage in their own exchange to still fund Federal subsidies for plans that cover elective abortion in other States. In addition, the bill includes $7 billion in new mandatory spending on community health centers, funding that is not subject to any restrictions prohibiting Federal dollars from funding elective abortions. If the current legislation passes the House without abortion funding restrictions, such as was I believe properly introduced in the Representative Bart Stupak amendment, it will be virtually impossible to alter the language through reconciliation as the two versions are reconciled over in the Senate since Senate Republicans have said they will block amendments which require 60 votes to overcome a point of order under reconciliation. So for those reasons, I would say that we should not be passing the bill tomorrow.…





