[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5147-5148]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW ACT RESOLUTION

  Mrs. ERNST. Mr. President, I rise to thank my colleagues for their 
support of my legislation to overturn President Obama's eleventh hour 
rule that revokes States' rights to determine the best eligible 
subgrantees for title X family planning funding. It should be the right 
of our States to allocate subgrants under the title X program in the 
way that best fits the needs of the people living there. Unfortunately, 
like many other rules that were issued during the Obama administration, 
this rule attempted to empower Federal bureaucrats in Washington and 
silence our States.
  As we all know, States are closer to and more familiar with the 
healthcare providers and patients within their borders and should be 
able to make their own decisions about the best eligible title X 
subgrantees, be they hospitals, federally qualified community health 
centers, or other types of providers. A number of States have acted in 
recent years to prioritize title X subgrants to more comprehensive 
providers, where women can receive greater preventive and primary care 
than they can with providers like Planned Parenthood.
  The Obama administration's rule attempted to claim that providers 
like Planned Parenthood can ``accomplish title X programmatic 
objectives more effectively.'' This rhetoric does not match the 
reality. In fact, after Representative Diane Black and I led more than 
100 of our colleagues in pointing that out to the Obama administration, 
HHS acknowledged the challenge of measuring effectiveness across all 
types of title X recipients and subrecipients and therefore removed the 
word ``effectively'' from the final rule.
  So why was this rule implemented in the first place? It is because 
the Obama administration wanted to do everything it could to secure 
Federal funding streams for Planned Parenthood before they turned over 
the keys to the Trump administration. With our vote today, we prevented 
that from happening.
  But let me be clear. Although it is no secret that I do not believe 
Planned Parenthood--the Nation's single largest provider of abortion 
services--is deserving of Federal taxpayer dollars, this legislation 
does not prevent Planned Parenthood or any other specific entity from 
receiving title X funds. If States like Washington or Massachusetts 
want to distribute title X subgrants to Planned Parenthood, this 
legislation to overturn the Obama administration's rule will not 
prevent them from doing so, nor does overturning the rule reduce 
overall funding levels for the Title X Family Planning Program.
  In fact, this legislation does not in any way decrease women's 
healthcare funding. Rather, overturning the rule merely empowers States 
over a Washington-knows-best mentality and assures that States have the 
ability to identify the best eligible title X subgrantees. It restores 
local control and ensures that States aren't forced by the Federal 
Government to provide abortion providers like Planned Parenthood with 
taxpayer dollars.
  I appreciate my colleagues' support of this legislation, and I look 
forward to President Trump signing it and scrapping the Obama 
administration's overreaching eleventh-hour rule.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, on January 18, 2017, two days before 
President Obama left office, he finalized a rule and put it in place to 
require States--regardless of their decisions in their State--to have 
to use Planned Parenthood, removing the decision making from each 
State.
  In the past, it had been very straightforward. States were allowed 
the opportunity to be able to examine who was the best decision maker 
to be able to help and the best provider of care in their community for 
title X funding. For that family planning funding, when it occurs and 
when it goes through the process, the States made the decision, looked 
at the providers, found out who the most comprehensive provider was, 
who could provide the best healthcare, and they made that final 
decision.
  President Obama, two days before he left office, finalized a rule to 
remove that right from States and to compel each State to be able to 
use Planned Parenthood.
  States like mine and many other States said: We want to do family 
planning in our State. We want to have comprehensive healthcare in our 
State, but we do not want to provide Federal funds to the single 
largest provider of abortion in the country. That was a reasonable 
decision that our State lawmakers could make to be able to protect the 
lives of women in our State and to protect the lives of children for 
the future. That reasonable, commonsense method was removed two days 
before President Obama left office.
  I am proud to say that the House of Representatives and the Senate 
today voted to strike that rule from the last two days of President 
Obama's term to compel States to be able to use Planned Parenthood in 
their States, to be able to give the option back to the States again.
  I look forward to President Trump signing it. I would remind the 
President of this one simple thing, though. This does not strike 
funding away from women's care. This doesn't take funding away from any 
of the family planning. This doesn't even force States to not use 
Planned Parenthood. It is a simple statement of where we used to be: 
States could choose to have Planned Parenthood as a part of their title 
X funding, or not. It is their choice. If some States want to do that, 
they may continue to do that. Other States should not be compelled to 
do that with taxpayer funds, though.
  That is the new status quo as soon as President Trump signs it--to be 
able to return to a basic doctrine: States should not be compelled to 
have taxpayer funds used toward Planned Parenthood title X funding.
  I am proud that this Senate just passed this resolution. It is a 
reasonable act for us to be able to do, and I look forward to the 
President's signature.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.

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