What the 107th Congress Has Done So Far

By Douglas Johnson
NRLC Federal Legislative Director

[Editor's Note: The congressional roll call votes on the key pro- life issues described below have been published in past editions of NRL News. Those votes, and many earlier votes, are now compiled in an easily readable format in the Legislative Action Center at the NRLC website, http://www.nrlc.org/.]

WASHINGTON (June 10, 2002) - - The 107th Congress is more than three-quarters over. Because the Democrats hold a one-vote margin in the U.S. Senate, so far it has not been a very productive session for pro-life forces.

The Senate Democratic leadership and most of the Democratic senators are profoundly hostile to pro-life positions. They are the main barrier to enactment of numerous crucial pro-life measures that have passed or could pass the House of Representatives, and that are supported by the president.

As the Congress began in January 2001, pro-life forces had high hopes. After the eight grim years of the Clinton-Gore Administration, pro-life President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had been sworn in. The new Senate was equally divided between the parties, 50-50, but since Cheney would break any tie vote, Republicans retained majority control, with pro-life Senator Trent Lott (R-Ms.) as majority leader.

The Republicans also retained the majority control of the House that they have held since 1995 -- keeping scheduling power and most key leadership positions in the hands of pro-life lawmakers, including Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Il.), Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tx.), and Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R- Tx.).

Things started well. When President Bush nominated as attorney general John Ashcroft, previously a pro-life senator from Missouri, pro-abortion groups were among those urging the Senate to refuse to confirm him. But the Senate confirmed Ashcroft 58- 42 on February 1, with eight Democrats joining all 50 Republicans in voting to confirm.

In the House, the top Republican leadership and House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wi.) rapidly pushed to the floor the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 503), sponsored by Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). This bill, strongly backed by NRLC, would recognize an unborn child as a legal victim when he or she is injured or killed during commission of a federal crime of violence. Anti-life forces offered their own counterproposal, which would have recognized only one victim (the mother) in such crimes. The Bush Administration strongly opposed the "one victim" substitute and supported the unborn victims measure. On April 26, 2001, the pro-life side prevailed, as the House rejected the substitute, 196-229, and then passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, 252-172.

The pro-life side came out on top on a second major issue, too. On his first working day in office, President Bush used his executive authority to restore the pro-life "Mexico City Policy," which denies U.S. foreign aid funds to private groups that promote abortion overseas. Pro-abortion members of Congress won House committee approval of an amendment to overturn the President's policy, but on May 16, 2001, the full House voted 218- 210 to reverse that action and thereby to sustain the pro-life policy. (Although the pro-life side prevailed, this roll call illustrated how closely divided the House is on some abortion- related issues: A switch of only four votes would have reversed the outcome.)

Overall pro-life prospects for the 107th Congress took a marked turn for the worse on May 24, 2001, when Senator James Jeffords (Vt.) announced that he would leave the Republican Party to become an independent senator, and would vote to give the Democrats majority control of the Senate. Jeffords' switch, which became effective on June 6, gave the Democrats a 51-49 Senate majority. This made pro-abortion Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) the majority leader, with broad powers to set the Senate's agenda, and it placed pro-abortion chairmen in charge of the Senate's key committees.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress was largely preoccupied with national security and economic issues for months. Nevertheless, in late 2001, Senate committees added provisions to four different appropriations bills to weaken or repeal existing pro-life policies dealing with federal funding of abortions, embryonic stem cell research, and funding of pro-abortion groups overseas. In response, the White House issued veto threats on each bill, and all four of the pro- abortion provisions were ultimately dropped. The Senate did not conduct roll call votes on any of these issues.

Since the switch in majority control in the Senate, the House has continued to pass important pro-life bills - - but the Senate has acted on none of them. For example, on July 31, 2001, the House passed NRLC-backed legislation to ban the cloning of human embryos by more than a 100-vote margin. In November, when pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) pushed hard for Senate action on the measure, Majority Leader Daschle - - who opposes the bill - - promised floor action in "February or March" of 2002. The fulfillment of that promise has repeatedly been postponed and as of June 10, 2002, still had not occurred.

More recently, in April, the House passed the Child Custody Protection Act (H.R. 476), which would penalize those who take minors across state lines to evade laws that require parental notification prior to an abortion. But Daschle and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) are expected to block the measure, just as they have on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.

At NRL News deadline on June 10, key pro-life House members were preparing to reintroduce the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a bill that NRLC helped originate and strongly supports. It is expected that the House will act on this legislation this summer. Its prospects in the Senate are cloudy.

President Clinton vetoed bills to ban partial-birth abortion in 1996 and in 1997. On each occasion, the House voted to override the vetoes, but pro-life forces fell short of the required two- thirds majority in the Senate. President Bush has said that he would sign such a ban into law.

In the current Congress, there was one key issue on which the Senate and the House did agree - - but not to the advantage of pro-life groups. On April 2, 2001, the Senate passed the McCain- Feingold "campaign finance reform" bill, 59-41. NRLC strongly opposed the bill because it contained multiple provisions to restrict the right of NRLC, NRLC affiliates, and other citizen groups to communicate with the public about the actions of members of Congress, and regarding upcoming congressional votes. House Republican leaders also opposed the bill, but a majority of House members signed a "discharge petition" that forced the very similar Shays-Meehan measure to the House floor, where it passed on February 14, 2002, 240-189.

The Senate gave final approval to the measure on March 20, 2002, by a vote of 60-40, and President Bush signed it into law. The bill's provisions will take effect immediately after the general election of November 5, 2002, unless they are struck down in court, where NRLC and other groups are challenging many of the bill's restrictions on constitutional grounds.

Voting Records

As of June 10, 2002, the full House has conducted 12 NRLC-scored roll call votes during the 107th Congress, all of which are now posted on the NRLC website in the Legislative Action Center. New votes will be added soon after they occur.

The full Senate so far has conducted only two NRLC-scored roll calls in the 107th Congress - - the votes on bills to restrict free speech about politicians, described above.

House and Senate voting records for the 105th Congress (1997-98) and the 106th Congress (1999-2000) may also be viewed at the Legislative Action Center.