LEGISLATIVE
UPDATE
| A Win! Contraception Covered in Federal Employees Health Benefits Plans | In a hard-fought battle for reproductive rights, Representative Nita
Lowey (D-NY) succeeded in restoring language requiring contraceptive
coverage for federal employees in the final Omnibus Appropriations
bill. The measure would require Federal Employees Health Benefit
plans (FEHB)to provide coverage for five Food
and Drug Administration- (FDA) approved prescription contraception
medications.
This is a major victory in our efforts for health insurance contraceptive coverage. The battle began when the Lowey provision passed the House and was included in the Treasury/Postal Appropriations bill in July, but contraception opponents went to work to have it deleted. Interestingly, majority support for the coverage came because a number of House members who consistently vote against women's reproductive rights measures broke ranks and supported the provision. Perhaps they did so because the coverage would mean that they themselves, as federal employees and their families, would benefit. A similar provision by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Harry Reid (D-NV) unanimously passed the Senate, after heroic efforts by Sen. Reid to restore the coverage language that had been stripped out. Despite wide support, the House and Senate Republican leadership pulled the provision from the bill in conference committee. Rep. Lowey, the Democratic leadership, and a group of 20 moderate Republicans sent a letter to House Speaker Newt Gingrich urging him to include the language. Their efforts to retain the provision were a success as it passed just hours before the final budget agreement was reached. Not so successful were several efforts to have the Equity in Prescription
Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act (EPICC) passed; this
measure would have required insurance companies that provide coverage for
prescription medication to also cover prescription contraceptive drugs.
A substantial number of insurance companies disallow coverage for birth
control pills and devices. Sponsors Reid and Snowe were not able to bring
the bill to a floor vote. An ironic comparison can be made with efforts
to have Medicaid pay for the use of viagra, the male potency drug, which
ultimately were not successful.
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Action Needed: |
Rep. Lowey deserves a huge "thanks" for all her work on behalf of reproductive
rights for women, as do Sens. Snowe and Reid. It is especially important
during the post-election break to thank your Representative or Senators
if they have supported measures to assure reproductive
rights for women and to urge that that they continue their good work.
The number for Congress is (202)224-3121.
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| Bill Denying Teens' Confidential Access to Contraception Fails | The Senate defeated efforts to discourage teens from seeking reproductive
health services at Title X federally-funded family planning clinics when
it refused to agree to a House-passed amendment. The amendment
was pushed by extremist Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) and would have required
parental notification or consent for minors seeking contraception services.
However, this restrictive provision was not included in the final Omnibus
Appropriations bill.
|
| Another Victory! FDA Funds Restored to Approve Mifepristone (RU-486) | The House- and Senate-passed amendment prohibiting the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) from approving drugs that could be used to induce
medical abortion was eliminated from the FY 99 Agriculture conference report.
If passed, this provision would have halted efforts to bring Mifeprisone
(RU-486), the early abortion medication, to market. The drug,
which as undergone extensive clinical trials in the U.S., was found by
the FDA in 1996 to be safe and effective. In addition, it has shown efficacy
in treating several serious conditions, including breast cancer and meningioma.
Mifepristone
is expected to be available sometime in 1999.
|
| FY 99 Foreign Operations Bill: Global Gag Rule Dropped | International family planning programs narrowly escaped imposition
of a global gag rule that would have prohibited those organizations from
discussing abortion -- even if they did so with their own non-U.S.
funds. The agreement to drop the global gag rule provision resulted in
a funding level of $385 million for international family planning and will
be subjected again to monthly metering. This means that critically-important
programs serving millions of people in developing countries will have difficulty
operating because U.S. aid will be doled out in small monthly amounts.
In another punishing action, Congressional reproductive rights opponents
deleted the U.S. contribution to the United
Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), a charitable organization
which works in dozens of developing nations. This action was thinly veiled
as a protest against coerced abortion incidents in China, but was actually
just another serious blow to international family planning.
The global gag rule language had also been included earlier this year
in a separate State Department authorization, but President Clinton kept
his word and vetoed the legislation because of the rule.
|
| Dr. Henney Confirmed As FDA Commissioner | In early September, the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee
held a hearing on the nomination of Dr. Jane Henney as Commissioner
of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Although the Committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of Henney's nomination,
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) attempted to block her nomination. Eminently
qualified for the position, Dr. Henney served as deputy commissioner under
former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler, and is currently the vice president
for health sciences at the University of New Mexico.
Despite her qualifications, Dr. Henney's nomination was also held up
by Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles (R-OK). A Nickles spokesperson
said that Senator had concerns that Dr. Henney "might take activist stands
on issues such as abortion and tobacco." Later Nickles dropped his
objections and said he believed Dr. Henney would do a "fine job" as FDA
commissioner and urged the Senate to approve the nomination. On October
21, the Senate approved the nomination of Dr. Henney, making her
the first woman to hold this important position.
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| Title X Family Planning Gets A $12 Million Increase | The Senate Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved a $12 million increase for the Title X family planning program and this was included in the final appropriations bill. In addition, no anti-family planning amendments were attached. The Clinton administration and family planning advocates worked hard in budget negotiations to assure this important gain. |
| Senate Refuses to Consider VAWA II | In the closing days of the 105th Congress, the Senate refused to take
up the Violence Against Women
Act of 1998 (VAWA II, S.
2110) and the House-passed Conyers' Amendment which approved
and funded a number of programs in the House VAWA II bill (H.R.
3514). The refusal was a setback for efforts by anti-violence advocates
to expand upon successful programs combating domestic violence, rape
and sexual assault and to extend the focus to under-served groups like
lesbians, rural, older and disabled women.
On October 7th, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN)
introduced a new bill, the Battered Women's Economic Security Act of
1998 (BWESA), S.
2558, that would provide battered women and their children with
viable options to escape the violence. BWESA rounds out the VAWA
II package in the Senate as it includes parts of the House bill that were
not incorporated in S.
2110, which was sponsored by Sens. Joe Biden (D-DE) and Arlen Specter
(R-PA). It also includes the Domenici/Stevens bill (S.
2395) that would provide grants to address domestic violence in
health care settings.
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Action Needed: |
Advocates will be meeting in late November to review actions of the
recently adjourned 105th Congress relating to domestic violence and sexual
assault legislation. Ideas about how to improve and expand on the
legislative package for the 106th Congress are solicited. Send or
e-mail your suggestions to the NOW Government Relations Office at 1000
16th St. NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036 or to now@now. org
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| Battered Immigrant Women's Provisions Denied | The VAWA Restoration Act (H.R.
4291), sponsored by Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD), would restore protections
for battered immigrant women that were lost when so-called immigration
reform legislation passed in the 104th Congress. In July, the State/Commerce/Justice
Appropriations bill, S.
2260, was passed, which incorporated many of the provisions in
H.R.
4291. However, the House and Senate appropriators did not include
many of the provisions spelled out in the Morella bill (H.R.4291).
As a result, many battered immigrant women may be forced to stay with their
abusive U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouses for fear that they will
be deported or suffer other adverse consequences.
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| Sex-Trafficking Resolution Lost In The Shuffle | The coercion and abduction of young women and girls for purposes of
prostitution, known as sex-trafficking, is a violation of fundamental
human rights that occurs around the world. To help bring pressure on
those nations which allow sex-trafficking to flourish, members in both
houses of Congress are sponsoring a resolution decrying the practice and
asking the federal government to undertake a number on initiatives to stop
certain practices. These anti-trafficking resolutions were
sponsored in the House by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) (H.
Con. Res. 114) and in the Senate by Sens. Paul Wellstone (D-MN)
and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) (S.
Con. Res. 82). Unfortunately, both resolutions died in the
House and Senate Judiciary Committees which were consumed by the preparations
for impeachment hearings.
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Action Needed: |
Passage of the anti-trafficking resolution would put the spotlight on those countries –notably Thailand and Burma – who engage in covert support of trafficking. Laws against the activity exist, but are not enforced. Please urge your member of Congress to support the effort and ask the White House to take more initiative on this issue. |
| Hate Crimes Bill Stymied in Senate Judiciary Committee | Negotiations on the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1998 (S. 1529) continued right up to adjournment, but no agreement was reached. As proposed by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), this legislation would amend federal hate crimes statutes to allow for prosecution of hate crimes as a result of biases based ib person's gender, sexual orientation or disability. Reportedly, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) insisted on dropping gender and disability from the categories that would be protected in the bill, leaving only sexual orientation. Such terms were unacceptable; therefore, the bill failed to come to a floor vote. However, Rep. Barbara Cubin's (R-WY) House resolution condemning the brutal hate killing of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming, was overwhelmingly passed by a voice vote. |
| Social Service Grants Cut at President's Insistence | After advocates struggled for months to get the House and Senate to
agree on level funding for the Social Services Block Grant (Title XX)
at $2.38 billion, the total was cut by $399 million. Title XX provides
funding to local programs providing family planning services, child care,
after school care, job training, senior assistance and numerous other
important social services. These programs are very important to low income
families trying to make ends meet and for others making the transition
from welfare to steady employment. Other aspects of Title XX aid abused
children and adults as well as assist the mentally retarded and developmentally
disabled.
The block grant amount had been slashed in previous years during efforts
to cut federal spending. In final budget negotiations. President Clinton,
reportedly, insisted on taking the $399 million out of Title XX
and applying it to fund his administration's education initiatives. This
was done as part of the Democrats' election season emphasis on the popular
issue of increasing support for education.
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Action Needed: |
Please call the White House and ask that they find another $399 million
to replace the amount taken from Title XX Social Services Block Grants
and urge that they never again remove funding from an already under-funded
program serving women, children and the elderly. The White House
main number is (202) 465-1414.
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| Limited Funding Continues To Impair the EEOC | Funding is a crucial issue for the continued viability of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
In recent years, Congress has tried to limit the ability of the EEOC
to carry out its mission of combating employment discrimination and sexual
harassment. A current federal authorization limits the number of
EEOC employees to 3, 220 for the entire agency, but FY 98 appropriations
only provide enough funds to support 2,586 employees. It is this "bare
bones staffing" that is seriously damaging this agency's effectiveness
and preventing it from responding to a huge backlog of cases. The budget
increase for FY ‘99 totals a mere $18 million -- $15 million of that amount
will be needed to cover collective bargaining salary increases for existing
staff. Again, the annual appropriation falls far short of the need
and thousands of cases will languish.
In addition, the Senate finally approved the nomination of Ida
Castro, former director of the Women's Bureau at the U.S. Department
of Labor, as the new chair of the EEOC.
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Action Needed: |
Urge your member of Congress to support sufficient funding for the
EEOC in next year's appropriations so that it can both handle the backlog
and ongoing cases. Additionally, ask your Senators to help move forward
the Castro nomination.
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| Census Sampling Postponed Until Supreme Court Acts | Because the accuracy of the Census affects our nation's ability to
ensure equal representation and improve access to important governmental
resources, conducting a fair and accurate Census is a significant civil
rights issue. As a result of the inaccuracy and considerable expense of
the 1990 census, the Census Bureau,
professional statisticians, and Congress agreed that significant changes
would be necessary for the upcoming 2000 Census. A new technique proposed
in the Census Bureau's plan for the Census is the use of limited scientific
sampling. NOW supports this technique as it will help identify traditionally
undercounted groups, such as people of color, low income persons and homeless
persons. Because women constitute a large proportion of those
sub-groups, this is an important issue.
Republican leadership in Congress has bitterly opposed the sampling technique – out of a fear that increased numbers of previously undercounted groups may impact Congressional district re-apportionment. The FY 99 Commerce/Justice/State Appropriations bill failed to appropriate funds, instead postponing action for six months. This was done so that an expedited judicial review of the constitutionality of Census sampling could be completed by the Supreme Court. The Court's decision is expected in late winter or early spring. With that information, Congress will be forced to come to an agreement on the use of sampling no later than June 15, 1999. |
This Legislative Update was compiled by the Government Relations/Public Policy team at the National NOW Office. Call Jan Erickson, Government Relations Director at (202) 628-8669, ext. 768, or Lisa Ensey at ext. 377, if you have any questions. To receive free of charge copies of any of the above bills, call your U.S. Senator or Representative at (202) 224-3121 or connect to http://thomas.loc.gov web site. This update is mailed monthly to the NOW Leadership. Any member can receive a copy of this update by mail for a yearly charge of $25. You may also read this Legislative Update at: http://www.now.org/issues/legislat/. Anyone may receive it by e-mail if they join our Action Alert e-mail network.