Don Nickles: “This is the current law. It says, basically, we are going to spend $420 million on international family planning funds.…”

“This is the current law. It says, basically, we are going to spend $420 million on international family planning funds. Under the administration's resolution, that will increase by $120 million. For 4 months there will be $30 million more per month. This is a convoluted way to do this. I was not involved in coming up with the consent agreement that arranged this. My sympathies go to my colleague from Vermont and the Senator from Kentucky, because they wrestled with this for a long time. I know Mr. Panetta was involved in this. We had a real impasse. Maybe I will give a little background in between, so our colleagues might remember, but there is a difference in philosophy on what we should do with international family planning money. The House felt very strongly we should continue the Mexico City restrictions, the Mexico City restrictions being restrictions that these moneys could not be used by an organization, international family planning organization, if they had involvement with abortion.”