President Biden's Fiscal Year 2023 U.S. Budget recommends eliminating the life-saving Hyde Amendment, recommends providing funding for abortion and abortion providers

President Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposes eliminating the Hyde Amendment and allows taxpayer funding of abortion.

Life-related provisions include:

Eliminates the Hyde Amendment (p. 797) which would allow taxpayer funding for abortion on demand through Medicaid, Medicare disability, and other programs funded under the Labor/Health & Human Services appropriations bill.

In Context: Blinded by what we can see

This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. There was a day of opening statements, two days for the nominee to answer questions, and a day of supplemental expert testimony.

The Senate and the Supreme Court have been operating and interacting for more than 200 years, forming and adjudicating the words of our laws and their meanings. Americans have been able to read and hear how their laws are made for at least the latter half of that time.

In the last four decades, the function of Congress has been harmed by a change to its operations, and one Senator during this week's hearings reiterated his hope to prevent the same cause of dysfunction from being imposed on the Supreme Court.

Weekly Congress Update

Daily Digests – House • Senate — Prayers — Committee Reports

Senate — Leader Remarks • Actions begun, passed, declined, summarized

Competition bill could carry high-skilled immigration changes

Congress Update

Daily Digests – House • Senate — Prayers — Committee Reports

Related Headlines:

Zelensky Speaks to Congress, Asks for Fighter Jets, No-Fly Zone — Full Text

Zelenskyy Invokes Pearl Harbor, 9/11 In Plea To US Lawmakers • Zelensky challenges conscience of Congress, lights new fire under Congress — with limits • Congress gives standing ovation to Zelensky • Members of Congress Praise Ukrainian President’s Speech • ‘Throw On My Uniform’: Congress Reacts To Zelenskyy’s Emotional Speech • Five takeaways from Zelensky's virtual address to Congress

'Protect our sky': Zelensky calls for no-fly zone • Pelosi rejects


Senate — Daily Leader Remarks • Actions begun, passed, declined

Senate approves making Daylight Saving Time permanent — S. 623
• Push to make daylight savings time permanent has longtime backers • What's really happening when we change our clocks • On year-round DST, Congress is springing into error • What would change

Shalanda Young confirmed as OMB director — 61-36

Senate votes to nix mask mandate for public transportation — 57-40

Senate passes resolution supporting Putin war crime probe — S.Res. 546


House — Bills • Actions passed

House votes to bolster efforts to educate public about Japanese American internment camps — H.R. 6434

After Zelenskyy speech, House passes bill to revoke normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus — H.R. 7108

House passes CROWN Act, banning race-based hair discrimination — H.R. 2116

In Context: Protecting the sunshine with our clocks

In 2007, Rep. Bill Sali of Idaho gave a speech on the House floor in which he suggested an “Obesity Reduction and Health Promotion Act” proposing “that the force of gravity by the force of Congress be reduced by 10 percent.”

He didn't introduce the bill, but he was making a point about the futility of defying natural law even as some in Congress sometime seem to think, as he put it, “The force of Congress can be brought to bear and justified to suspend those natural laws which would otherwise control important matters.”

Congress has never managed to change the law of gravity, but it is trying to change when the sun rises and sets.

In Context: Blinded by a searing hot iron

A United States Senator gave a speech on the Senate floor this week in which he said, “The death of a child is an unspeakable loss. There is no way to calculate it, and if you haven't lived through it, I don't think any of us can understand what some families have lived through. Yet in America, the most powerful Nation on the Earth, in less than [___] years, more than [___] children have been killed by [___], and that number is the reported fatality number. Compounding the grief and loss that these families experience is the fact that these deaths might have been prevented.”

Those of us who have worked on pro-life advocacy for years could use exactly that language to describe the unspeakable loss of children who have died because of abortion.

Politicians across the political spectrum frequently speak about children and the need to protect them, including as recently as this week. This isn't new, which is why almost all news organizations ignored Senator Casey's speech, except for one. Yet, the inconsistency in compassion for children born and unborn persists.

There's a reason for this: blindness.

Congress Update

Daily Digests – House • Senate — Prayers — Committee Reports

Related Headlines:

Congress Passes Sweeping Bipartisan USPS Overhaul — H.R. 3076

Emmett Till Antilynching Act heads to Biden's desk, makes lynching a federal hate crime — H.R. 55

Biden signs stopgap funding bill to avert shutdown — H.J.Res. 75

House passes $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill — H.R. 2471 — includes: 6.7% Full-Year Domestic Spending Increase, $13.6 Billion for Ukraine, VAWA reauthorization; Senate passes; Pro-Life Analysis


Senate — Daily Leader Remarks • Actions begun, passed, declined

Debate on amendment to stop injection mandates — rejected 49-50


House — Weekly Leader Colloquy • Bills • Actions passed

House votes to condemn threats to HBCUs and attack on Texas synagogue — H.Con.Res. 70, H.Res. 881

House passes bill banning Russian oil imports, authorizing sanctions — H.R. 6968, 414-17

Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022

H.R. 2471, the large spending bill with Ukraine aid, included the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization Act of 2022 without problematic provisions some in Congress were attempting to add several years ago.

Pro-Life Analysis of H.R. 2471, Fiscal Year 2022 Appropriations

Yesterday the House of Representatives considered H.R. 2471, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, in two divisions: Division 1 (divisions B, C, F, X, Z, and titles 2 and 3 of division N) and Division 2 (all remaining divisions). Division 1 passed the House by a vote of 361-69. Division 2 passed the House by a vote of 260-171, 1. (Full Bill Text)

Division 1 included Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations and retained two instances of longstanding pro-life language. The rest of this analysis refers to Division 2.

This bill retains the longstanding, bipartisan status quo: the pro-life protections that have been the subject of consensus for decades were all retained, and funding of problematic funding streams was not increased. The $2 million earmark for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte was removed.

Congress Update

Daily Digests – House • Senate — Prayers — Committee Reports

Senate — Leader Remarks • Actions begun, passed, declined, summarized

McConnell and Senators spoke on the Senate floor in advance of the vote against H.R. 3755 • Senate votes to block Democrat bill enshrining abortion as Supreme Court reconsiders Roe v. Wade • Bill Would Have Codified Roe v. Wade, eviscerated pro-life state laws — H.R. 3755

Congress Has Approved a Measure to Push More FDA and NIH Funds to Their Private Sector Foundations — S. 1662

Senate votes to strike Biden's vaccine rule for health care workers — Debate and vote on S.J.Res. 32

Senate passes resolution to nix COVID-19 emergency — S.J.Res. 38

House — Weekly Leader Colloquy • Bills • Actions passed, summarized

House passes bill making lynching a federal hate crime — H.R. 55

GOP blocks House bill to ban race-based hair discrimination — H.R. 2116

State of the Union Address: as prepared, as delivered • Schumer reaction • McConnell reaction • A plea for unity in unusual times • Biden condemns Putin, projects unity • praises Ukrainians as 'wall of strength' against Putin • Biden pushes clean energy tax credits • Biden announces 'Test to Treat' initiative • proposes four-part unity agenda • calls on Congress to pass China competition bill • Pleas For Increased Restrictions On Social Media • GOP boos Biden for claim Trump tax cuts benefited 1% • Lauren Boebert says Biden put 13 service members in coffins • Afghan war veteran slams Boebert • Few wear masks after mandate lifted • Lawmakers praise and pan Biden's speech, wonder about action • Centrists praise • Tlaib offers stinging critique • Ocasio-Cortez: Biden 'left a little bit to be desired for key constituencies' • Biden's first State of the Union pins him between Manchin and Ocasio-Cortez Democrats • Fact Check: 4 Claims • Five viral moments • Five takeaways • Five things Biden didn't talk about

House agrees to resolution in support of Ukraine — H.Res. 956

House passes bill to expand health benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits — H.R. 3967