(CNSNews.com) — When asked how and when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would pass legislation to defund Planned Parenthood, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said “Planned Parenthood legislation will be in our reconciliation bill,” but provided no further information.
CNSNews.com asked Ryan at his weekly meeting with reporters about defunding the nation’s largest abortion provider, which annually receives millions of dollars in government health services grants and reimbursements–$528.4 million in the year that ended on June 30, 2014, according to Planned Parenthood’s annual report.
CNSNews.com asked, “Speaker Ryan, can you tell me how and when you are going to pass legislation to defund Planned Parenthood?”
Ryan responded: “Planned Parenthood legislation will be in our reconciliation bill.”
President-elect Donald Trump promised during his campaign to defund Planned Parenthood. In a Sept. 2016 letter to pro-life leaders, Trump wrote: “I am committed to … Defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions and reallocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Thursday: “In his press conference this morning the Speaker said that, yes, defunding Planned Parenthood would be part of the reconciliation bill that they put forth.”
A report by CNN on Wednesday explained the difference between regular legislation and passing a bill through the reconciliation process, which is also being used by Republicans to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
“Broad legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare would require 60 votes in the Senate, and Republicans don’t control enough seats to make that happen or to squash a filibuster by the Democrats,” the report said. “Instead, Republican lawmakers are expected to use the budget process, which is limited to provisions that affect federal revenues and spending and requires only a simple majority to pass.”
“It would enable Congress to repeal the Obamacare mandates that individuals have coverage and that companies with 50 or more employees provide workers with affordable insurance,” the report said.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Policymakers have enacted 20 budget reconciliation bills since 1980, the first year they employed the process; four other measures were approved by Congress but vetoed by the President.
“Policymakers used reconciliation to enact major spending cuts during President Reagan’s first year in office, several deficit-reduction packages during the 1980s and 1990s, welfare reform in 1996, and the large Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.
“Reconciliation was most recently used in 2010 to help pass the Affordable Care Act and modify the federal student loan program, and then in 2016 in a vetoed attempt to repeal key elements of the Affordable Care Act.”
(New Boston Post photo by Evan Lips) 
