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| Net neutrality is a big deal. Corporations are spending big money on lawsuits and lobbying to make the policy go away, and this week those corporations won a big victory. But the fight isn’t over: now is the time to speak out.John Whitehouse Twitter: @existentialfish Net Neutrality Matters A Lot
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IMAGE OF THE WEEK |
It’s only January 15, but Republican legislators and their activist allies are not wasting any time when it comes to the war on women. Just today, both the Supreme Court and Congress considered new restrictions that could limit basic access to abortion.
1. A panel of House Republicans, all of which are men, is advancing a bill that contains far-reaching restrictions on abortion access. The bill, the so-called Rape Audit, H.R. 7, aims to limit access to abortion by making it much more difficult for women to purchase private insurance that covers abortion (as most private plans currently do) with their own money. (Similar laws were passed by seven states last year.) In addition to increasing taxes on women and small businesses, it would also empower the IRS to conduct audits of rape survivors to ensure they’re not merely pretending to be raped. Pro-choice legislators and advocates have been pushing back against this assault, including a group of Democratic congresswomen who sternly told the GOP to “stop wasting taxpayers’ time and dollars waging attacks on women’s constitutionally protected right to make informed health care decisions about their own bodies.”
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, claimed the bill is actually a jobs plan because denying women access to abortions will make them have more children, who will in turn help grow the economy. Another leading anti-abortion legislator, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), blocked a Democratic effort to amend the bill with legislation that cracks down on workplace discrimination against pregnant women by claiming that abortion access has nothing do with pregnant women.
CREDIT: DEMOCRATIC LEADER NANCY PELOSI
2. The Supreme Court may rule to eliminate buffer zones at abortion clinics, allowing protesters almost unlimited access to patients and staff. Depending on how the Justices rule in McCullen v. Coakley, a case they heard today, cities and states may no longer be allowed to enact buffer zones around reproductive health care facilities. Since protests outside of clinics often turn violent, abortion providers say that buffer zones are critical for ensuring the safety of their patients and staff. In fact, there have been over 4,700 incidents of clinic violence and 140 clinic blockades since 1995.
Justices Scalia and Alito incredulously claimed that anti-abortion activists who gather outside clinics and harass patients and staff aren’t actually even protesting, they merely want to “speak quietly” to patients. It appears likely that Alito, Scalia, Kennedy (who has long opposed buffer zones) will be able to find at least two other justices to strike down the Massachusetts law and perhaps overturn a 2000 ruling that upheld a similar law in Colorado.
It’s worth noting that the Supreme Court bans protests on its own plaza.
3. In the past 3 years, states have enacted more abortion restrictions than during the entire previous decade. A new report from the Guttmacher Institute notes that between 2011 and 2013, state legislatures enacted 205 laws that restrict women’s reproductive rights. In the decade prior, between 2001 and 2010, states enacted 189 such restrictions. While the campaign against abortion rights rages on nationwide, Guttmacher points out that the multiple, often overlapping restrictions enacted just a few states — North Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, and North Carolina — helped drive the spike.
CREDIT: GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE
4. States with anti-choice governors and state legislatures outweigh states with pro-choice ones. The two charts below illustrate the imbalance. And in a new state-by-state report card released this week by NARAL Pro-Choice America, 25 states receive a failing grade for reproductive rights while America on the whole gets just a ‘D’ grade.
Choice Positions Of Governors
CREDIT: NARAL
Choice Positions Of State Governments
CREDIT: NARAL
BOTTOM LINE: Women’s health advocates are hopeful that this year will prove to be a turning point in the fight over women’s reproductive rights, but so far we’re seeing more of the same from their opponents.
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The Senate stands adjourned until 10:00am on Thursday, November 7, 2013. Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of S.815, the Employee Non-Discrimination Act.
During Wednesday’s session of the Senate cloture was filed on S.815. As a result, the first degree amendment filing deadline is 10:30am and the 2nd degree amendment filing deadline is 11:30am.
At 11:45am, there will be 2 roll call votes in relation to the following:
– Toomey amendment #2013 (broadens the number of groups covered under the religious exemption) (60-vote threshold) and
(the committee-reported substitute amendment will be agreed to by unanimous consent)
– Motion to invoke cloture on S.815, ENDA, as amended If cloture is invoked, there will be a 3rd roll call vote at 1:45pm on passage of S.815, ENDA, as amended.
11:52am The Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on the Toomey amendment #2013 (broadens the number of groups covered under the religious exemption);
Not Agreed To: 43-55
Next votes:
Immediately following Toomey vote:
– Cloture on S.815, ENDA, as amended.
1:45pm:
– Passage of S.815, ENDA, as amended
12:21pm The Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on S.815, ENDA, as amended
Invoked: 64-34
2014 Senate Calendar – 113th Congress, Second Session
Convene – January 6, 2014
January 20 – 24 State Work Period (Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday January 20)
February 17 – 21 State Work Period (Presidents’ Day February 17)
March 17-21 State Work Period
April 14 – 25 State Work Period (Passover begins April 15; Good Friday April 18; Easter April 20)
May 26 – May 30 State Work Period (Memorial Day May 26)
June 30 – July 4 State Work Period (Independence Day July 4)
August 4 – September 5 State Work Period (Labor Day September1)
Target adjournment – TBD
At 1:50pm, the Senate began a roll call vote on passage of S.815, the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, as amended.
Passed: 64-32
Prior to adjourning today, Senator Reid filed cloture on Executive Calendar #346, the nomination of Cornelia T.L. Pillard, of the District of Columbia, to be United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit; and on the motion to proceed to Calendar #236, H.R.3204, a bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to human drug compounding and drug supply chain security.
By consent, the cloture vote on the Pillard nomination will occur at 5:30pm on Tuesday, November 12. If cloture is not invoked, the Senate would proceed immediately to the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to H.R.3204, Drug Quality and Security Act. If cloture is invoked on the nomination, the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to H.R.3204 would occur upon disposition of the nomination.
WRAP UP
ROLL CALL VOTES
1) Toomey amendment #2013 (broadens the number of groups covered under the religious exemption); Not Agreed To: 43-55
2) Motion to invoke cloture on S.815, the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, as amended; Invoked: 64-34
3) Passage of S.815, ENDA, as amended; Passed: 64-32
Additional LEGISLATIVE ITEMS
Discharged Foreign Relations and adopted S.Res.280, recognizing the 40th anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from the Vietnam War and expressing renewed support for United States veterans of that conflict.
Began the Rule 14 process of S.1661, to require the Secretary of State to offer rewards of up to $5,000,000 for information regarding the attacks on the United States diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya that began September 11, 2012.
No EXECUTIVE ITEMS
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Last Floor Action:
5:11:55 P.M. – The House adjourned
pursuant to a previous special order.
The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00
a.m. on November 12, 2013, unless the House receives a message from the Senate
transmitting its adoption of H. Con. Res. 62, in which case the House shall
stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution.
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