Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1735, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 36, Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2048, USA Freedom Act of 2015; and Providing for Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Rules
Floor Speech
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, House Resolution 255 provides for general debate for H.R. 1735, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016; provides for a closed rule for consideration of H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act; and provides for a closed rule for consideration of H.R. 2048, the USA FREEDOM Act.
The rule before us today provides for general debate for H.R. 1735, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, also known as the NDAA. The NDAA, which has passed Congress and has been enacted for over 50 years in a row, is a vital exercise each year in providing for the common defense, one of our most profound constitutional responsibilities.
The NDAA includes over $600 billion in important national security funding, providing resources to each of our four military branches, our nuclear deterrent, and related agencies. The legislation fully funds the President's request for funding for our warfighters overseas and includes important steps to advance Department of Defense acquisition policies to ensure we are saving taxpayer dollars and stretching our precious defense dollars as far as possible.
H.R. 1735 also includes provisions improving military readiness, strengthening our cyber warfare defenses, and holding the line on keeping terrorists in cells at Guantanamo Bay, not in our States or back on the battlefield.
This rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 2048, the USA FREEDOM Act which addresses critical national security investigation concerns while making much-needed changes to protect the privacy of Americans.
H.R. 2048 prohibits explicitly the bulk collection of all records under section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, the FISA pen register authority, and National Security Letter statutes. This provision prevents government overreach by ending the indiscriminate collection of records that violates the privacy of all Americans.
Madam Speaker, this bill also improves transparency, making significant FISA interpretations available to the public and requiring the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to disclose how they use these national security authorities.
Finally, the USA FREEDOM Act ensures that national security is strengthened by closing loopholes that prevented tracking of foreign terrorists, narrowly defining which records the Federal Government may obtain, and enhancing investigations of international proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Madam Speaker, I share the concern that our colleagues across the aisle have about the return of the young women taken by Boko Haram and salute their wearing red today and your wearing red today. However, Madam Speaker, I chose to wear pink today because we are dealing with a very sensitive issue about unborn children.
Today's rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This is important legislation for the House to consider, particularly this week, 2 years after the conviction of Philadelphia-based late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who was found guilty of first degree murder in the case of three babies born alive in his clinic.
He killed these children using a procedure he called ``snipping,'' which involved Gosnell inserting a pair of scissors into the baby's neck and cutting its spinal cord, a procedure that was reportedly routine.
A neonatologist testified to the grand jury that one of the babies, known as Baby Boy A, spent his few moments of life in excruciating pain. Late-term abortions are agonizingly painful, and they are happening all too often in our Nation. Americans have been asking how different those abortions are from Gosnell's ``snipping.'' Thankfully, they know the answer to those questions and support protecting these nearly fully developed lives.
A March 2013 poll conducted by The Polling Company found that 64 percent of the public supports a law prohibiting an abortion after 20 weeks when an unborn baby can feel pain. Supporters included 63 percent of women and 47 percent of those who identified themselves as pro-choice.
That finding was not an outlier; it is representative of the public's true beliefs. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 64 percent of Americans support prohibiting second trimester abortions, and 80 percent support prohibiting third trimester abortions.
Even The Huffington Post found in 2013 that 59 percent of Americans support limiting abortions after 20 weeks; and Cosmopolitan magazine, not known for its traditional values, had an article recently all about the impact of smoking by pregnant women on their ``unborn babies.'' They weren't blobs of tissue or even fetuses, but ``unborn children.''
Those unborn children can feel pain, which is why they are provided anesthesia when surgery is performed on them in the womb. They can even survive outside the womb, with The New York Times reporting just last week on a study that The New England Journal of Medicine published that found that 25 percent of children born prematurely at the stage of pregnancy covered by this legislation survive.
There are countless stories--no longer so uncommon we would call them miracles--of children surviving and thriving, such as Micah Pickering, who was born right at the stage when this legislation would protect other children in the womb and is now a ``spunky almost 3-year-old,'' according to his mother.
The legislation we consider today, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, is carefully written to advance the consensus of a majority of Americans that these late-term abortions should cease.
In order to maintain that consensus, the bill includes provisions allowing abortions in cases of rape or where the life of the mother is in danger. It also provides strong protections for minors who have been sexually assaulted, stopping abortionists from ignoring child abuse that enters their facility.
Most importantly, it protects the lives of well-developed, pain-capable children who could well survive outside the womb. America is one of only seven nations that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks, which includes such well-known human rights leaders as North Korea, China, and Vietnam. The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would finally put an end to that.
Madam Speaker, I commend this rule and the underlying bills to my colleagues for their support, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Probably throughout the day, we will be setting the record straight on things my colleague has said. Victims of rape can get counseling from a hospital that performs abortion; but most egregiously, Madam Speaker, the arguments raised across the aisle about incest are astounding.
Let me be clear. If a woman is sexually assaulted and that leads to a pregnancy, there is a rape exception in this legislation that applies, regardless of the family status of her aggressor or the age of the victim.
As the legislation includes an exception for all women who are sexually assaulted, those across the aisle who raise incest appear to believe we should provide special exemptions under Federal law to individuals in consensual incestuous relationships. That boggles the mind. This objection is a shameful distraction from the important debate we are having about protecting well-developed, unborn children from being ripped apart in the womb.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
This rule provides for the consideration of several important pieces of legislation.
H.R. 1735, the FY16 NDAA, was the result of months of bipartisan work and includes crucial provisions to ensure our Armed Forces are agile, efficient, ready, and lethal.
No debate over these issues would be complete without an expression of our deep gratitude and thanks to the members of our military serving at home and overseas and the veterans who served before them. By providing their compensation, equipment, and vital skills education funding in this legislation, we make a small beginning on the impossible to repay debt that we owe them.
Consistent with our constitutional obligation to provide for the defense of our country fulfilled by consideration of the NDAA, H.R. 2048, the USA Freedom Act, similarly meets our responsibilities to secure America by tightening necessary authorities to combat potential terrorist threats, while making fundamental reforms, such as the end of bulk collection of phone records to protect Americans' privacy and civil liberties.
The provisions of this bill that increase transparency by declassifying decisions, orders, and opinions of the FISA court and requiring the public posting of reports to Congress also ensure that Congress and the public can hold these actors accountable.
These critical reforms strengthen our national security, give the Federal Government the tools needed to combat threats, and ensure that privacy and civil liberties are protected.
Our civil liberties aren't the only rights meriting protection, however. The right to life is the most fundamental of rights, and I am proud the people's House will consider H.R. 36, the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, getting America out of a group with North Korea, China, and Vietnam as one of only seven nations permitting such late-term abortions.
H.R. 36 provides commonsense protections for 20-week-old and older unborn children who can feel pain as you and I do. They have fingers and toes, a heartbeat, and can kick hard enough to startle their mothers. Thanks to the grace of God and the advances of modern science, many of them can even survive outside the womb.
Millions of Americans welcome these developments, and a majority of our constituents support defending the lives of almost fully developed unborn children. That is no surprise in the wake of Kermit Gosnell's horrors and will only continue as more Americans learn about the dismemberment and other grotesque practices that accompany killing an unborn child of that age.
This legislation is a necessary step in recognizing the truth that science has made more clear with the passage of time; the unborn child in the womb is alive and a functioning member of the human family.
I urge my colleagues to join me in speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves by supporting this legislation, and I thank all of my eloquent colleagues who came down today to speak on this rule.
Madam Speaker, the rule before us provides for action by the House on three critical pieces of legislation, and I strongly urge my colleagues' support.
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