No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. FARR. Madam Speaker, this bill is simply outrageous. It was bad enough that the Majority brought to the floor H.R. 36 outside the regular order. But the Majority had to pull that bill when the women in their Conference informed their Leadership just how bad the bill was and that they could not vote for it. Undeterred at its `war on women' the Majority pulled H.R. 36 and rushed to the floor an equally offensive bill, H.R. 7. This new bill, H.R. 7, the so-called No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015 is simply an attempt to substitute one anti-family bill for another. Timed to coincide with the annual pro-life march in Washington, this is a blatant attempt at pandering to their base.

During the last elections, the Republicans made quite a show of how they would run the Congress by regular order and make Congress work for the American people. However, we have had mere hours notice that this bill would even be brought to the floor. The bill was introduced yesterday and has already been fast tracked by the leadership to be on the floor this morning! Needless to say, there was NO committee debate and NO opportunity to amend the bill in any way. No one has even had a chance to read the bill. Who says those in Congress can't get things done quickly when they want to?

Supporters of the bill argue that it will simply codify the Hyde amendment and permanently prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion. However, we all know that is false. H.R. 7 is actually much more nefarious than that. It seeks to restrict women's reproductive rights and access to health care; increase healthcare premiums for many Americans and small businesses; and, limit the private insurance choices of consumers. It will almost certainly guarantee that insurance companies will no longer offer abortion coverage to consumers.

The Republicans in the House are continuing the mission to completely eliminate women's reproductive rights and their access to healthcare. As with the previous version of this bill, H.R. 7 is nothing more than a statement bill.

In addition, this bill also undermines the D.C. home rule. H.R. 7 prohibits D.C. from using its own Medicaid funds to provide abortion, language that is already included in the annual appropriations bill. This is despite the fact that 17 states currently use their own state funds to provide abortion.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 7 is the antithesis of Republicans stated goal of ``small government.'' How can the Majority be so hypocritical? The Republican Majority is using this bill to reach into the lives of millions of Americans and make their health care decisions for them.

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