Chris Smith: “I just hope my colleagues, particularly those who may be listening to this debate back in their offices, are very clear…”

“I just hope my colleagues, particularly those who may be listening to this debate back in their offices, are very clear that there is nothing in this bill that authorizes population control funding. There is no policy guidance either way. The Mexico City policy is not in here. I wish it had been, but it is not, and I would like to ask my friends on the Democratic side, perhaps the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hamilton], if he can just clarify so that everyone knows, when the Democratic substitute was offered in the conference committee, did it have language in it dealing with the population issue, did it authorize population or not? My understanding was it simply did not have section C, which is exactly what the conference report of the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman] does not have, so that there is no authorization, population is not advanced, it is not pushed backwards. It is simply not in this bill.”