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Abortion Bills Advance, Setting Up a Showdown
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the top Democrats in Congress, spoke outside the White House on Thursday after a strategy session with President Obama over the looming fight over abortion and the federal budget, which could result in a government shutdown.Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans said on Thursday that they would take up legislation outlawing all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and the House voted to move forward with a bill that would end government financing for Planned Parenthood, intensifying a fight over abortion that threatened to paralyze budget talks and force a government shutdown at the end of the month.

Despite the Republicans’ push, which was a response to videos showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing the use of aborted fetuses in medical research, there were also signs that congressional leaders were counting on a fallback plan to keep the government functioning temporarily, roughly at last year’s spending levels.

The return to center stage of abortion, an issue that has divided Washington and the country for generations, signaled just how bitterly partisan the political climate had recently become — driven by a powerful and unyielding group of hard-right lawmakers in the House — and how difficult it has become for the White House and congressional leaders to perform even the most basic responsibilities of governing.

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While forestalling a shutdown, a temporary funding measure would set the stage for a fierce budget fight this fall between President Obama, who says increased spending is needed to spur economic growth, and Republican congressional leaders, who believe mandatory cuts have forced restraint on government spending.

That spending fight could coincide with other battles over the need to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and replenish the Highway Trust Fund, which finances the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges and will run out of money Oct. 29.

Even as the abortion issue has animated Republicans on Capitol Hill, their leaders, particularly the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, acknowledge that Mr. Obama would refuse to sign any spending legislation that cuts off funds for Planned Parenthood.

As a result, the Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate have each drawn up plans for a “clean” temporary spending bill, called a continuing resolution, that would keep the government functioning after the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

“We have got the C.R. ready to go, a clean C.R.. The only thing we are lacking is leadership’s decision on how long it’s going to last, and that’s under discussion,” the House Appropriations Committee chairman, Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky, said in an interview.

But Mr. Rogers said the Planned Parenthood issue had injected deep uncertainty into the situation, with some Republicans potentially willing to shutter the government over it.

“This issue is so explosive, so emotional and has been so publicly discussed across the country that it’s difficult to come to a consensus,” Mr. Rogers said. Still, he added: “Eventually we have got to pass a CR that the president will sign.”

At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. McConnell was nonchalant about an impending shutdown.

“The question was, am I losing sleep?” Mr. McConnell said, not quite smiling. “No, I’m not. We’re going to fund the government. We’re not going to shut the government down.”

Mr. McConnell said that he was conferring with House leaders over how to proceed.

“We’ll be forced into a discussion about how much we’re going to spend,” Mr. McConnell said. “We know our Democratic friends’ goal is to spend more on everything. As all of you know, I’ve got members who want to spend more on defense. I put myself in that group as well.”

Republicans have already taken steps to increase military spending without abrogating previous spending limits by adding $38 billion to a contingency fund for overseas war operations, which does not count toward the limits.

The White House and Democrats are demanding that any spending increases be divided equally between military and nonmilitary programs.

To add pressure, the White House and some congressional Democrats have called this week for ending a tax provision that has granted billions in tax breaks to wealthy private equity managers — a move supported by some Republican presidential candidates.

For his part, the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, agreed with McConnell’s desire to avoid halting government operations.

“The Republican leader and I don’t see eye-to-eye on much — but we both support a clean bill to stop a government shutdown,” Mr. Reid said on the Senate floor.

“We all know how this ends,” he said. “The Senate will pass a clean continuing resolution.” He added, “So what are we waiting for?”

Republicans, however, showed no sign of relenting in the push against Planned Parenthood, particularly in the House, where Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio has been struggling to contain an uprising by rank-and-file conservatives who have even threatened to try to oust him from his post.

At a news conference on Thursday, Mr. Boehner stressed his party’s efforts to act on the anger over the Planned Parenthood videos.

“We’re also standing with the American people to stop these grisly practices that we have seen from some abortion providers throughout our country,” Mr. Boehner said. “My colleagues on the Democrat side, both in the House and Senate, should heed what the American people are saying: It’s time to stop these horrific practices and the selling of baby parts in America.”

Federal law already bans the use of tax money for elective abortions, but House Republicans want to end all government financing for Planned Parenthood, which provides an array of other women’s health services.

The House also voted on Thursday to move forward with a bill that grants added protections for fetuses born live during attempted abortions, an effort that many Republicans spoke about in deeply emotional terms.

“Science has shown us earlier and earlier glimpses of tiny unborn human beings who can feel pain,” Representative Joe Pitts Jr., Republican of Pennsylvania, said at a hearing on the bill to cut financing for Planned Parenthood. “What must such a baby feel when she is approached by doctors who come to kill rather than to cure?”

The situation is further complicated by the fact that four Republican senators are also running for president, and the issue was highlighted in Wednesday night’s debate. Democrats warned that by next week any one of those senators could single-handedly force at least a short-term government shutdown simply by exploiting the Senate’s procedural rules for debate.

In a sign of increasing engagement by the Obama administration, Mr. Reid and the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, met with the president at the White House to discuss strategy on Thursday afternoon.

In a 90-minute meeting, Mr. Obama and the two top Democrats agreed that they should pursue a short-term funding measure free of extraneous policy provisions, to provide time for negotiations on a broader deal. 

Ms. Pelosi said Democrats were ready to “be cooperative” and negotiate with Republicans. “I’m ever optimistic that the Republicans know that it was very damaging to our country when they did this before, and hopefully they won’t do it again,” she said of a shutdown.

Read more http://rss.nytimes.com/c/34625/f/640350/s/49f428ef/sc/7/l/0L0Snytimes0N0C20A150C0A90C180Cus0Cabortion0Ebills0Eadvance0Esetting0Eup0Ea0Eshowdown0Bhtml0Dpartner0Frss0Gemc0Frss/story01.htm


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