[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2648-2649]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TITLE X GRANT ALLOCATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this morning to talk 
about a piece of legislation that is going to be before us this week, 
and we are bringing it forward through the Congressional Review Act.
  In our office, we have had so many people ask: What is a 
Congressional Review Act, and how is it that you can recall these 
rules?
  This allows Congress to exercise their authority over the agencies 
and the administration and the executive branch interaction where they 
make rules. Many times they do these rules, as this previous 
administration did, at the last minute, as they are heading out the 
door, trying to put their thumb and their imprint on actions and 
prohibit Congress or prohibit the States from taking an action.

[[Page 2649]]

  So as we meet in this Chamber this week, we are going to take up H.J. 
Res. 43. H.J. Res. 43 is a resolution which will disapprove of one of 
these last-minute rule changes that President Obama made as he was 
exiting his office. This one deals with title X funds and the grant 
allocations that come through title X funds.
  Now, title X funds were put in place to serve women and their 
healthcare needs, underserved women in underserved areas, and to make 
certain that there were provisions so that they could access women's 
health and have access to preventive screenings, to annual 
immunizations, those checkups that they need to have each year. Many 
times these funds have been used by individuals who will say: We do 
women's health and we also do abortion services.
  Now, what the rule would have done was to block the States and to 
take away their ability to go in and ask: Who is going to have access 
to these funds, and are we going to disallow them to go to entities 
that provide abortion services?
  So H.J. Res. 43 repeals the previous administration's rule and it 
restores and gives back to the States the flexibility that they want 
and desire to have to distribute these title X grants under the 
parameters for which this program was designed.
  States should be able to offer family planning funds to providers 
that offer a full and complete range of healthcare services for women, 
but do not participate in elective abortions.
  Title X funds, outside of the Affordable Care Act, were intended to 
help keep patients healthy and to help them on the road to a better 
quality of life and better health outcomes, not to take away life.
  H.J. Res. 43 also redirects title X grant funds to other clinics 
comprised of local health departments, hospitals, and federally 
qualified health centers that seek to protect life and offer healthcare 
services to women.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support H.J. Res. 43, which 
repeals the previous administrative efforts which undermine State laws 
and restores to the States the title X grant program for its original 
purpose.

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