Bill Lee: “I want to thank our ranking member for yielding, but also I just want to thank her for her tireless leadership on our…”

“I want to thank our ranking member for yielding, but also I just want to thank her for her tireless leadership on our subcommittee and full committee. You truly are a champion for all Americans, especially women and girls not only in our own country but all around the world. So it is really too bad we have to stand here and even debate this again, but thank you again for your leadership. I am proud to speak in support of our ranking member's amendment to strike two poison pill riders in this bill. Now, my colleagues and I have offered amendments to strike these ideological--that is what they are--provisions both in the full Appropriations Committee and again during the Rules Committee. It is outrageous, quite frankly, that the majority refuse to allow these amendments to even come to the floor for a debate. Now, I have fought long and hard against the global gag rule, which denies family planning funding to organizations who want to help women plan their families. We have been fighting this now for at least, myself, two decades. This cruel policy is really a political football putting lives at risk just to score a few cheap political points. President Trump and this Republican majority have taken this extreme policy to the limits, expanded it to all global health funding. Let me be clear. This policy will cost lives. This administration's actions have consequences, and, sadly, it is the most vulnerable women and girls who will pay the price.…”