Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would increase from $3 million to $6 million the amount of funds appropriated for competitive grants to distribute firearm safety materials and gun locks under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program. The Edward Byrne program is funded at $376 million total, as recently amended up to $380 in this appropriations bill. The $3 million increase that I am seeking is less than 1 percent of the total allocation of the program and has received a budget-neutral score from the Congressional Budget Office.
I think that increasing the level of gun safety in America is a priority, and I hope that my colleagues would agree. Nothing in this amendment would restrict any American citizen's Second Amendment rights. The only thing that this amendment seeks to do is to achieve greater gun literacy, safety, and avoid accidents.
This amendment makes good sense, it will save lives, and I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of it.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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r. GRAYSON. Madam Chair, I would like to state at the outset of offering this particular perfecting amendment that I really wish that this section 202 of this bill located on page 54 didn't appear in it. It reads as follows:
None of the funds appropriated by this title shall be available to pay for an abortion, except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term, or in the case of rape.
Again, I disagree with this section of the bill and its limiting principle, but I feel that we should, at the very least, perfect it in the manner that also includes the words ``or incest.''
In short, there is an allowance here for abortions in the case of endangering the mother, and there is an allowance in the case of rape, but somehow or other this bill forbids abortions in the case of incest.
Throughout the U.S. Code, whether it be in 10 U.S.C. 1093 pertaining to abortions for armed services personnel, 42 U.S.C. 1397ee or jj, dealing with exceptions to abortion limitations within the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, or 42 U.S.C. 18023, a section containing provisions of the Affordable Care Act, Federal law is clear: abortion exceptions consistently include protections to the life of the mother in cases of rape and cases of incest.
Were one to examine comprehensively the statutes and regulations of this Nation, there are numerous similar occasions referred to colloquially as the Hyde Amendment. I think that this amendment itself is explanatory. I believe it is perfecting in nature. I think it is quite possible that the drafters inadvertently omitted ``incest'' from this bill, and I think that it carries the protection necessary for all American women, whether incarcerated or not.
I don't think that the purpose of this bill was inadvertently or through silence to narrow the protections that are afforded to women under our Constitution. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
I recognize that there may be a point of order to be raised here. I would specifically urge my colleague to think twice before raising that point of order. We are talking here about incest, a vile crime. Even if there is a point of order to be raised here, it is optional. I would hope that my colleagues would recognize that it is optional and that a higher important principle is involved here.
Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. GRAYSON. Madam Chair, laws have consequences. The scenario that we are describing here is one where a female prisoner is the victim of incest. If this law passes as currently written that female prisoner will be forced to carry to term the child of an incestuous relationship. I regard this as absolutely indefensible.
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