Arrington Says the Clock Expired on Blocking Abortion Funding. Hawley Says Congress Has No Excuse.

House Republicans have been discussing reconciliation for months, with one consistent priority: reinstating the ban on federal funding for abortions. However, the budget resolution to kick-start the reconciliation process, released Wednesday morning, included no directive to block the funding.

House Republicans introduced the $95 billion budget resolution with two goals in mind: pass the SAVE America Act and provide emergency supplemental defense funding.

When this Congress last July passed the first reconciliation bill, the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” it prohibited Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood for a year. That expired this month, and Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, is once again eligible for federal funding.

Pro-life Republicans are now calling on Congress to ensure that the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars will no longer be given to Planned Parenthood, which was responsible for the abortion of 430,000 preborn American children last year.

Arrington Answers

The Daily Signal asked House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, why the priority didn’t make it into the final directive.

“It was brought up early when we had a much more extensive view of what we could get done,” Arrington said.

The Texas Republican explained that while they had to “stay narrow,” this plan will “support our troops, provide certainty to the food supply, and lastly, safeguard our elections.”

“The American people, by over 80%, want commonsense safeguards for the integrity of our national election, and we’re going to do that. We believe this vehicle will do that,” Arrington added.

The resolution instructs four committees to write reconciliation legislation: the House Administration Committee, at $10 billion, for SAVE America; the House Armed Services Committee, at $60 billion; the House Intelligence Committee, at $13 billion, both for defense and Iran spending; and the House Agriculture Committee, at $12 billion, for farmers.

In the past year, there have been multiple priority lists from various Republican caucuses, including the Republican Study Committee and the House Freedom Caucus. Priorities discussed for months included ending federal funding for abortion, fraud prevention, affordable housing, reforming President Joe Biden-era energy policy, and a Republican health care plan. None were included.

Arrington explained that it all came down to time and suggested that he believes Republicans will eventually be able to stop federal funding for abortions. However, this was Republicans’ last chance before the possibility of losing the majority in the midterms.

“We had the time, the luxury of time, in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, to work through that and get at least a partial win for the pro-life movement. I was very happy about that,” he said.

“We got to a point where the clock was just, was what it was,” Arrington continued. “I’ve been talking about this for months, and, you know, there’s just been a lot of other things … we as a unified Republican leadership team have had to deal with.”

Hawley’s Plan

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., says that this funding being reinstated is a “moral consequence.” 

“The United States Congress has a significant decision to make. Is this Congress, a Republican Congress, going to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to the worst, most notorious abortion provider in the United States of America?” he asked. 

“This Congress should have acted long ago,” Hawley continued. “There is no excuse, none, for Planned Parenthood to be receiving taxpayer money to be carrying out the mutilation of our children, to be carrying out the murder of the innocent unborn. And yet, that is exactly what this Congress is now planning to do.” 

Hawley has a long history of fighting abortion funding. During the last reconciliation, he filed an amendment to the budget resolution to ban the funding. Now he says it is the time to act. 

“It should have been done in the last go-round, and it should be done now. This is the time to act. It is a moment of moral consequence, and it is a moment for moral leadership,” Hawley continued.