Bush Will Veto Spending Bill 
That Doesn't Ban Abortion Funding

February 11, 2003—Washington, DC: The White House on Tuesday sent a letter to Congress threatening to veto the fiscal year 2003 omnibus spending bill if it does not include, as it normally does, a pro-life amendment prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortions.

The letter was sent by Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels as House and Senate negotiators were considering the final 11 spending bills for the current fiscal year. In the letter, Daniels said that Bush "objected" to the Senate-passed version of the bill that does not include limits on the use of federal funds for abortions.

The Senate last month passed its version of the $390 billion FY 2003 omnibus appropriations bill without two pro-life provisions that the Bush administration has said must be in the bill for President Bush to sign it.

One provision would have banned abortions from being covered for the approximately eight million women in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. The other provision would have barred abortions from being performed in the federal Bureau of Prisons system.

According to Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, both measures would have extended current law, and they are traditionally included in the final version of the bill.

In its written review of the bill, the Bush administration said, "If the final version of the bill did not include all current law provisions prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions, the president's senior advisers would recommend he veto the bill."

Jon Scofield, a spokesperson for Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee, said that the Bush administration's objections were not unexpected, adding that "[a] lot of those (provisions) were suggestions and some of them were must-haves."

Pro-life Sen. Rick Santorum said he hoped the "sticking points" would be resolved sometime next week. "We're still shooting for (resolution) when we go on (President's Day) recess," Santorum said, adding, "But it's still tenuous."