Back home for Easter weekend, I’m hearing from plenty of members of Congress. Their constituents weren’t happy with the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill to begin with, but they’re irate that Congress co-signed another massive check to America’s largest abortion business.

The refrains on social media are all the same: Republicans control the Hill and the White House. Why aren’t they defunding Planned Parenthood? By now, the entire country has seen the ghoulish videos; they’ve heard the criminal evidence; they know these centers are destroying an innocent life every 98 seconds. They’re right to be upset. I am too. But we also need to remember the limits of the process. If pro-lifers want to do what a 51-member majority in the Senate can’t, it’s time to start thinking creatively.

First, Congressional Budgeting 101. Planned Parenthood gets the bulk of federal taxpayer funding from two pools: one that’s a discretionary program — Title X family planning — and others that are mandatory, like Medicare/Medicaid. It breaks down this way: Planned Parenthood gets about $80 million of the $286 million in Title X, but more than $400 million in reimbursements from mandatory programs like Medicaid. In both, there are areas that conservatives can attack — with or without Congress. There’s the statutory approach, which would mean passing a spending bill to defund Planned Parenthood (like the House did last year, only to watch it fall short of the 60 votes it needed in the Senate). Or they could tackle the funding for Planned Parenthood in mandatory programs through budget reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes. The Republican majority succeeded in defunding Planned Parenthood on its 2015 health care repeal, but President Obama vetoed it. Last August, they tried again — only to fall short in the Senate.

The other approach to defund Planned Parenthood is regulatory. That’s where HHS comes in. If you want to know how powerful the agency is in directing government funds, think back to Obama. With a simple HHS regulation, he stopped all 50 states from defunding abortion providers under Title X. Fortunately, Congress overturned that rule last year, and more states are moving to cut ties with Richards’s group than ever.

Obviously, pro-lifers can’t change the situation in the Senate. Without a 60-vote majority, Republicans can only defund Planned Parenthood through the very strict reconciliation process. But, as Ben Domenech has been saying for three years, “There is a potential opportunity for an enterprising presidential candidate to draw a line in the sand on Planned Parenthood.” How? He explains:

Back in 1988, Ronald Reagan’s HHS announced an expanded interpretation of abortion funding prohibition regarding Title X funds, determining that no organization which encouraged or promoted abortion would receive federal funds. The left denounced this approach as a ‘gag rule’ and a potential First Amendment violation. This led to the case, several years later, of Rust v. Sullivan before the Supreme Court – which ultimately vindicated Reagan’s rule. But the policy was discarded during the Clinton presidency and never fully restored.

Right now, no organization is allowed to use the government’s family planning dollars for abortion. Planned Parenthood gets around that law, Domenech explains, by drawing an “artificial line” between its abortion clinics and its other family planning services — “even when those are located in the same facility, and essentially funded jointly.” If President Trump reinstated Reagan’s “co-location” rule, Planned Parenthood could still get Title X funds, but it wouldn’t be able to offer those services in the same clinics where it performs abortions. It would have to split up its offices — probably at great expense. Ultimately, Planned Parenthood would be forced to choose between dropping its abortion services from any location that gets Title X dollars or moving those abortion operations offsite. Either way, it puts a major dent in the group’s bottom line.

What’s more, Yuval Levin pointed out when the reconciliation bill failed in 2015, “The Supreme Court has already vindicated Ronald Reagan’s rule on the matter, meaning that the next president could lawfully adopt the same approach to determining how these funds are distributed — and in one act dramatically undercut Planned Parenthood.” Lucky for us, that “next president” happens to be pro-life. And if he’s as frustrated with Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded piggy bank as the rest of us, this is one way he can do something big about it.

Conservatives will get another crack at Planned Parenthood’s federal gravy train — hopefully soon. Until then, $80 million they get under Title X is a major step to the ultimate goal: ending taxpayers’ forced partnership with abortion for good.

Originally published here.

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Objections Over the HHS Mandate: Sustained!

When most people think of government fines, they probably think about something small like a traffic ticket. For the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA), the Obama contraception mandate gave new meaning to government penalties. A whopping $6.9 billion worth.

Obviously, the price for exercising your faith got pretty expensive under the last administration. The attack on religious Americans was so over-the-top that even the courts were appalled. And no one is more relieved than CBA. Since 2014, it’s been racking up $100 per person per day for refusing to surrender to the federal mandate that ordered it to pay for pills and procedures it morally opposed. Like dozens of other organizations that sued their way back to their constitutional rights, CBA is celebrating a permanent injunction from U.S. District Court Judge David Russell. And while he could have just delivered the First Amendment victory for the association, he took the extra step of blasting the mandate as illegal.

“This is a tremendous win,” said the group’s CEO, Douglas Wilson. “The first freedom in the Bill of Rights is the First Amendment right to freedom of religion. The court has rightly ruled that employers should not be forced to violate their beliefs and cover morally problematic elective… [choices]…” And, since the association represents dozens of dioceses, archdioceses, religious orders, hospitals, colleges and universities, and other ministries, it’s a victory for them too.

The decision, Russell ruled, is permanent. That means, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said, that “Catholic employers who belong to the CBA [of which there are more than 1,000] are now free from attempts by the federal government to coerce them into providing morally offensive health care coverage. This is a smashing victory for religious liberty and a stunning defeat for the pro-abortion industry and its allies.”

Of course, this is a predicament no American group should have ever faced. Six billion dollars in fines for exercising the freedom that brought our founders to this country? CBA isn’t the only organization that understands the real intent of that fine, either. Government penalties like that are usually for correcting abhorrent behavior, which apparently some liberals define as thinking biblically.

The real motivation behind the HHS mandate wasn’t to expand insurance coverage, it was to eradicate any entity that isn’t in line with the Left. The totalitarians in the last administration had no desire to have a conversation or arrive at a consensus. Their goal was eliminating anyone who doesn’t march to the beat of their radical drum. Thank goodness that Obama’s mandates were so far outside the constitutional boundaries that even the courts couldn’t ignore it!

Originally published here.

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Envoys Letter Rip on Pompeo

Next to HHS, probably no government agency is as important as the State Department. Maybe that’s why the Left is suddenly so preoccupied with what President Trump is doing there.

Believe it or not, there are still people in America who agree with Barack Obama’s miserable excuse for foreign policy. More than 200 of them, former U.S. ambassadors and diplomats, want to return to those days, firing off a curt letter to the ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the country’s “urgent need to restore the power and influence of American diplomacy.” Organized by a nonprofit called Foreign Policy for America, the group insists that when Mike Pompeo’s confirmation hearings start, the senators take no prisoners.

“This letter is a product of profound concern about the broad attitude of dismissiveness to diplomacy, the marginalization of professional diplomats, and the corrosion of the institution,” said William Burns, a signatory who served under five administrations. Where was this “profound concern” under the last administration? President Obama spent eight years tanking America’s reputation with international apology tours, treaties that encouraged our enemies’ nuclear programs, speeches and decisions that undermined Israel, and policies that turned the State Department into an international bully on abortion and radical sexuality.

President Trump has spent the last 14 months as a glorified janitor, trying to clean up the messes made by Obama’s brand of “diplomacy.” He’s had to fight Democrats for the confirmation of the empty leadership offices this letter complains about and handle new threats from every corner of the globe. Despite all that, he’s gotten further with countries like North Korea than any president yet. He’s rebuilt the relationship with our strongest Middle East ally, and he’s taking a no-nonsense approach to Iran. And in the midst of everything else, he’s made sure Ambassador Sam Brownback is in place to confront the religious freedom violations all around the world.

His nominee to take the helm of the State Department and restore America’s reputation, CIA Director Pompeo, is a respected and experienced conservative. Pompeo, he thinks (and we agree), can be the agent of change that predecessor Rex Tillerson was not. His job isn’t to take our nation backward to the failed strategies of the past, but forward to new opportunities. If these 200 officials are truly concerned about America’s reputation, then trust us. Pompeo is the man they’ve been waiting for.

Originally published here.

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This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.