Anti-Abortion Bill
Stalls; Session Nears End
By CARL HULSE,
NYTimes on the Web, December 7, 2006
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 The House
on Wednesday rejected an anti-abortion measure offered by Republicans as
Congressional leaders struggled to bring the 109th Congress to a close.
On a 250-to-162 vote, backers of the measure fell short of the two-thirds
majority necessary to pass the bill, which would require medical personnel to
inform women that a fetus could experience pain and to offer anesthesia for the
fetus. The supermajority vote was required under special rules used to
consider the bill.
Democrats accused Republicans, who will no longer be in the majority next year,
of trying to score political points. The measure had no chance of becoming
law in the last few days of this session.
We are wasting time today on a bill that is laden with rhetoric but very little
science, said Representative Lois Capps, Democrat of California.
But Republicans said the measure was intended to allow women to make informed
choices when considering an abortion. They disputed scientific research
suggesting that a fetus did not experience pain. This legislation is
very, very badly needed, said Representative Phil Gingrey, Republican of
Georgia, an obstetrician.
Proponents of the measure said that they do not expect the new Democratic
majority, whose leadership strongly supports abortion rights, to bring up such
measures, and that they will press the leadership to allow a second vote under
regular rules. But Republican officials said they had no plans to revisit
the issue.
With time running out, House and Senate leaders were trying to negotiate an
endgame that could lead to votes on tax, trade and spending measures before
Congress adjourns and Democrats take control in January. But there were
snags on nearly every front, and Congress had not yet advanced a stopgap
spending bill to keep the government operating beyond Friday.
All the decision makers are moving boxes, said Representative Sherwood
Boehlert, Republican of New York, who is retiring this year. Mr. Boehlert was
referring to the flurry of packing under way because some lawmakers including
some writing the remaining legislation are leaving to make way for new members
of Congress, and some in the leadership are getting ready for the transfer of
power.
Members of the House and Senate were trying to reach agreement on the elements
of a broad measure that would restore popular tax breaks like the college
tuition tax credit and to provide a way to pass more contentious legislation
like a trade deal with Vietnam and a bill opening part of the eastern Gulf of
Mexico to oil and gas drilling.
Hoping to break the impasse, the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and Senator Max Baucus,
Democrat of Montana on Wednesday introduced legislation that included those
proposals as well as a freeze on cuts in physician payments under Medicare.
Their bill also renews for one year trade benefits for the Andean countries of
Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia and would ease rules on imports of apparel
from Haiti.
Mr. Grassley acknowledged that assembling the bill was a delicate balancing act
and that some of the add-ons were drawing objections that threatened the
measure. It is a wonder we ever get anything done around here, he said.
Though they were leaving most of the spending bills for Democrats to deal with
next year, Republicans were hoping to win approval of one measure that provides
money for improvements at military installations and other benefits for members
of the armed forces. But some Senate conservatives were reluctant to allow
the measure to go forward, fearing it could become a magnet for last-minute pet
projects.
The House and Senate were also bickering over a stopgap measure that would keep
the government operating while the final spending measures are worked out next
year. Aides said Senate leaders wanted to use that measure to provide
money for additional veterans care and a pay raise for federal employees while
the House opposes such extra provisions. The legislation, known as a
continuing resolution, has to pass before the existing bill expires Friday.
The Senate also passed a measure that would provide about $7 billion over three
years for AIDS treatment and care, much of it funneled through state and local
programs, after a dispute was resolved over the level of spending in New York,
New Jersey and California among other states.
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