A $48.8 billion measure to fund foreign aid and the State Department budget has passed the House of Representatives after lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to force U.S. officials to oppose International Monetary Fund loans to countries that support terror.
The bill passed on a 318-106 vote after members voted overwhelmingly to force the Obama administration to abide by conditions on IMF funding added by lawmakers when Congress passed a huge war-funding bill last month.
President Barack Obama had said he could choose to ignore the conditions since they would interfere with his ability to conduct foreign policy.
Obama's move had infuriated lawmakers, who also want to make sure developing countries would not have to cap spending on health care and education when taking IMF funds.
Democrats had argued that the measure represents a $1.2 billion cut of more than 2 percent from current-year funding. Republicans countered that the measure would provide a $12.2 billion, 33 percent increase over 2009 levels. The difference of opinion involves whether "emergency" money provided in fiscal 2009 war funding bills should be part of the calculation for whether the pending measure exceeds current levels.
The truth is somewhere in-between, but at a minimum, the House measure provides a 4 percent increase over current funding. That is because Democrats used the war funding bill passed in June to pre-fund $2.4 billion worth of next year's aid to Israel, Egypt and other countries.
Earlier, Democrats on a crucial Senate panel voted to reverse permanently a policy in effect under recent Republican administrations that banned giving U.S. taxpayer money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information.
The 17-11 vote by the Appropriations Committee would give the force of law to the existing policy, set by President Barack Obama by executive order days after taking office. That means the next Republican president would not be able to put the ban back in place with the stroke of a pen as has been recent practice.
The policy in effect under President George W. Bush had banned U.S. government money, usually in the form of Agency for International Development funds, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion as a family planning method.
The ban was first put into place by President Ronald Reagan and has been known as the "Mexico City policy" for the city where a U.S. delegation first announced it at a U.N. International Conference on Population.
Critics have long held that the rule unfairly discriminates against the world's poor by denying U.S. aid to groups that may be involved in abortion but also work on other aspects of reproductive health care and HIV/AIDS, leading to the closure of free and low-cost rural clinics.
Outnumbered Republicans said the move by committee Democrats in effect would subsidize overseas abortions and would guarantee a floor imbroglio that could imperil passage of the bill, which otherwise enjoys bipartisan support.
"It is just going to create a really big fight," said anti-abortion Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, noting that because of Obama's order, "this is the policy that's in place today."
___
On the Net:
http://appropriations.house.gov
http://appropriations.senate.gov
