Congress: Lawmakers Return to Fray

As Congress returns from recess this month, domestic social issues will dominate the agenda, with lawmakers resuming work on several controversial fronts, including:

• Abortion. The biggest congressional battle on this issue is being fought over the annually debated District of Columbia appropriations bill. Last month, the House of Representatives narrowly defeated an amendment that would have prohibited the District from using tax revenues to pay for abortions for women who cannot afford them.

In years prior to 1988, D.C. Medicaid paid for some 3,000 abortions annually. Last year, Congress—which controls all of the District’s money—forbade the nation’s capital to use any public money for abortions. However, in a 219-to-206 vote just before the recess, the House rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Calif.) that would have had a similar effect on government-financed abortions.

Many members expressed concern that Dornan’s amendment offered no exceptions to the ban, not even if the life of the mother is endangered. Procedural maneuvering by prochoice representatives prevented prolife congressmen from introducing an amendment granting an exception to the ban when the mother’s life is in danger. Dornan said he would have been willing to add the exception during conference committee negotiations later on as well.

The measure now goes to the Senate for consideration. President Bush has sent a letter to Congress threatening to veto the bill if it allows appropriated funds to be used for abortion.

Additional congressional abortion-funds battles are expected in the next two months surrounding reauthorization and revision of the government’s Title X Family Planning Program and the foreign-aid authorization bills.

• Defining art. One of the most controversial issues before Congress has been funding of art works considered “obscene” or “indecent.” In July, the House voted to decrease the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) after it granted funds to “vulgar” exhibits (see The Arts, p. 69). One of the projects depicted a crucifix in urine; the other was a photography exhibit that included “sadomasochistic homosexual” photos.

The Senate, led by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), went even further and voted to bar the NEA from using any federal funds to “promote, disseminate or produce obscene or indecent materials.” The Senate measure also prohibits any federal art money from being used for an exhibit that “denigrates, debases or reviles a person, group or class of citizens on the basis of race, creed, sex, handicap, age or national origin.”

• AIDS. How to address this disease continues to be on the congressional front burner. The House has passed legislation that would increase federal spending on AIDS to $1.6 billion. However, the House blocked a proposed Public Health Service survey on sexual behavior in the nation. Public-health officials had argued that an extensive study of American sexual habits would help in the fight against AIDS. A House panel said the survey did not “appear to be an appropriate use of federal funds.” The Senate will now take up the measure.

• Family. Congress this fall will try to come to closure on a child-care plan (see below). In the meantime, it has been working on a plan to expand tax subsidies for low-income parents. The House Ways and Means Committee has approved a substantial increase of the maximum earned income-tax credit a working parent can receive annually, as part of the budget reconciliation package.

In addition, Congress has given final approval for $118 million in increased funds for the special supplemental food program benefiting women, infants, and children (WIC). According to the antihunger lobby group Bread for the World, the increase in funds will enable an additional 230,000 malnourished mothers and children in the U.S. to receive food and nutrition counseling next year. The organization said the result will be a decrease in the number of low-birth-weight babies, infant deaths, and hungry children. The increase is the largest for the WIC program in five years.

• Television. Both houses of Congress passed measures aimed at curbing violent television programming. The legislation, originally the idea of Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), would give television networks, local stations, producers, and the cable industry a three-year exemption from antitrust laws, allowing them to work together to adopt voluntary guidelines for showing nonnews violence on television. A conference committee will meet to work out minor differences between the two versions before the legislation is sent to the White House for the President’s signature.

By Kim A. Lawton.

PUBLIC POLICY

Child Care: As Easy as ABC?

Congress is continuing to wrangle over how involved Uncle Sam should be in the child-care business.

Prior to the congressional recess, the U.S. Senate passed the Democrat-sponsored Act for Better Child Care (ABC) bill, which proposes giving states $1.75 billion annually to subsidize child-care providers and help parents pay for child care. The bill calls for the allotment of an additional $10.5 billion between fiscal years 1990 and 1994 in tax credits to needy families with children.

In passing ABC, the Senate rejected a Republican alternative, supported by President Bush, that proposed broader child-care tax credits. Critics of this proposal said it would not provide enough aid to needy families and that it failed to address the issue of improving the quality of child care.

Opponents of ABC say it discriminates against parents who choose to care for their children at home or who seek care for their children from friends or church-based centers. In order to receive direct government aid, a day-care facility is not permitted to provide religious instruction.

Advocates of the bill attempted to redress its apparent discrimination against church-based child-care centers through an amendment, which proposes vouchers parents could use at any “eligible” child-care center. However, it is unclear, according to the bill’s critics, what will be required for eligibility beyond meeting basic health and safety standards. (For some, even health and safety standards constitute unacceptable government interference.)

National Association of Evangelicals spokesman Richard Cizik fears that churches and synagogues that accept vouchers would be subject to a host of additional federal regulations, including the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988. According to this act, an entire institution is subject to federal antidiscrimination law if any of its programs or activities receive government aid, whether direct or indirect (CT, April 22, 1988, p. 38).

Many, including Family Research Council president Gary Bauer, also oppose the ABC bill because they feel its vague language is certain to invite massive litigation. Bauer fears this will contribute to smaller providers being forced to close their doors.

As of now, the battle over child-care reform has shifted to the House of Representatives, where various proposals are being considered. Among the most popular proposals is a bill sponsored by Rep. Augustus Hawkins (D-Calif.) that would authorize $1.75 billion directly to states for expanded Head Start and early-childhood-development programs.

Critics say church-state problems also plague this bill. Said Rep. Tom Tauke (R-Iowa), “No system that prohibits church-based services for children is a good one.”

House Republicans have proposed more than 60 amendments and alternatives to the Hawkins bill, including the Toddler Tax Credit Bill, which proposes tax credits to poor and middle-income families.

The House is expected to take up the issue of child care soon. But few expect quick consensus. Any final congressional child-care package will have to be negotiated in a House/Senate conference committee before being presented to the President. And Tauke said Bush will veto any bill he believes discriminates or restricts parental choice in day care.

By Dede Slingluff.

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