Renee L. Ellmers: “Thank you, my learned colleague from North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule and the 2011…”

“Thank you, my learned colleague from North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule and the 2011 budget agreement that we have passed. We have already heard some of the aspects that this budget agreement addresses, and I am going to address some additional aspects. I am very pleased to see this House once again value the culture of life. The FY 2011 budget now reinstates the D.C. Hyde amendment to ensure that no congressionally appropriated funds, Federal or local, are used to pay for elective abortions. According to the Susan B. Anthony List president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Congress will save the lives of an estimated 1,000 unborn children when it votes to restore this amendment banning the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for elective abortions in the District of Columbia. It adjusts the U.N. Family Planning Agency funding from $55 million to $40 million. It adjusts international population control/family planning funding from $648 million to $575 million. It adjusts title 10 domestic family planning funding to $300 million, which is a cut of $17 million. This budget also calls for an up-or-down vote in both the House and the Senate, Madam Speaker, on the defunding of Planned Parenthood. While the fight is certainly not over, we are making great strides in the ongoing effort to not only get our country on a strong fiscal footing but to honor the value of lives born and unborn.”