With abortion measure defeated, Congress tries to reach compromise on tax, trade bill.
Although it was clear the bill would have stalled in the Senate, the abortion opponents hoped the House vote would provide a symbolic victory before control of Capitol Hill passes to Democrats in January. Instead, the vote dealt social conservatives a final setback in a two-year congressional session that has not produced a major piece of anti-abortion legislation.The bill received majority support, 250-162. But that fell short of the two-thirds margin required under rules that limited debate. In the Central Texas delegation, Rep.
Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, voted against the bill, but Republican Reps. Michael McCaul of Austin, John Carter of Round Rock and Lamar Smith of San Antonio voted in favor. Those decrying the outcome included Concerned Women for America, an advocacy group for socially conservative causes.
"Abortion not only kills a baby, it tortures them," said Wendy Wright, the group's president. "Regrettably, congressmen mdash; many who denounced the use of torture against suspected terrorists mdash; have voted to not let women know that abortion will torture their innocent unborn babies." "This sham bill is yet another partisan political ploy that misguidedly attempts to insert the government into private medical conversations between women and their doctors," said Rep.
Lois Capps, D-Calif., who helped lead opposition to the legislation. In other congressional action, negotiators from the two chambers were still struggling late Wednesday to come up with a common approach to a tax and trade package that could bring the 109th session to a close.
House Majority Leader John Boehner informed lawmakers that they wouldn't be able to adjourn today as planned. With talks on a compromise plan making little headway, Senate Finance Committee leaders introduced their own 500-page bill that would renew expired or expiring tax breaks for businesses and middle income individuals and trade items affecting economic relations with Vietnam, Haiti, Africa and Andean nations. The tax portion, said committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, gives "continued tax relief to families paying for college, teachers buying classroom supplies and producers of clean energy from sources such as wind.
" The package would also open 8 million acres off the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, postpone a planned cut in Medicare reimbursements to physicians and extend an abandoned coal mine reclamation program. The fix on Medicare payments is estimated to cost more than $10 billion over a one-year period. The abandoned mine bill could cost $5 billion over 10 years.
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