The Republican Study Committee has introduced “the most pro-life congressional budget ever produced, with dozens of policies that support our fight to protect and uphold the sanctity of life,” Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told The Daily Signal.
The budget’s release on Wednesday comes just 10 days before the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade. It contains over 220 bills and initiatives backed by members of the committee, including many of pro-life bills.
The Republican Study Committee is a conservative caucus of House Republicans chaired by Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., and includes over 170 members. Cline is the chairman of committee’s Budget and Spending Task Force. Every year, the committee issues a budget aimed at reducing federal spending, balancing the budget, and furthering conservative values.
The budget “recognizes that current federal policies fail to uphold the 14th Amendment and protect the right to life for our nation’s most vulnerable and opposes any federal policy that directly or indirectly facilitates or subsidizes abortions,” the text of the budget reads.
“Additionally, the [Republican Study Committee] budget supports the heroic efforts made by countless families, individuals, and organizations to provide resources to mothers and children in need, including through crisis pregnancy centers.”
The budget contains 30 pieces of pro-life legislation, such as Rep. Mike Johnson’s, R-La., bill to prohibit the transportation of a minor across state lines to have an abortion without parental consent, and a bill introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., that would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks, around the time a baby in the womb can feel pain.
The budget contains Rep. Michelle Fischbach’s, R-Minn., bill prohibiting federal funding of entities that provide abortions and Rep. Jim Banks’, R-Ind., bill that would require public reporting on Medicaid funds distributed to abortion providers.
The pro-life bills would be implemented were the budget to be adopted as is. They are listed in the document below:
The Republican Study Committee’s budget also addresses a number of other priorities, including the debt limit. According to the budget document, the committee’s official debt limit priorities for the current Congress include the following:
- Reverse recent increases in overall discretionary spending and institute statutory limitations on annual discretionary spending levels.
- Enact a package of inflation-busting reforms to increase domestic energy capacity and reduce associated regulatory and permitting barriers.
- Fight inflation and the onset of a Democrat-induced recession by ending the national COVID-19 emergency; increasing workforce participation; advancing targeted, paid-for, pro-growth tax policies; and countering overregulation with commonsense guardrails like the REINS Act.
- Ensure an increase in the debt ceiling is accompanied by commensurate spending reductions, including through rescissions of the Democrats’ recent excessive spending.
- Eliminate wasteful spending on duplicative programs; examine ways to fight waste, fraud, and abuse; and transition non-entitlement mandatory programs to the discretionary side of the budget.
- Establish a long-term fiscal control focused on reducing spending to restrain the growth of our federal debt as a percentage of the nation’s economy.
- Codify procedures to ensure the federal government honors certain critical obligations, such as federal debt payments, national security and veterans, Social Security and Medicare.
Hern has previously been critical of congressional Democrats’ spending policies. During an interview with “The Daily Signal Podcast” in December, Hern labeled the Democrat-backed omnibus spending bill “a monstrous bill … that most are expecting to add another $500 billion to the national debt.”
In May, Hern was one of 71 Republicans to vote against the deal to raise the debt ceiling that was negotiated between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The debt ceiling bill ultimately passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by the president on June 3.
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