Senate Democrats Accused of Dousing Two Pro-Family Measures
by Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
July 31, 2006
(AgapePress) - - While their legislative maneuvering may be completely legit, Senate Democrats don't seem to be going out of their way to make many friends among the pro-life, pro-family ranks.One pro-life activist is cautioning his fellow advocates for life not to celebrate the passage of the Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA) too soon because Democrats have found a way to block it. The CCPA, passed last week by the U.S. Senate, makes it a federal offense to knowingly transport a minor across a state line for the purpose of an abortion in order to circumvent a state's parental consent or notification law. The House had passed similar legislation before the Senate action.
Several pro-family groups have hailed passage of S. 403 as a major victory for families. But Doug Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee says the excitement of pro-life and pro-family groups is a bit premature. Why? Because within minutes after its passage, says Johnson, Senate Democrats blocked the bill.
According to Johnson, 14 Democratic senators voted to pass the bill, "but only minutes later the Democratic caucus collectively moved to kill the bill by objecting to the routine, necessary step of sending the bill to a conference committee," Johnson says. As the NRLC official explains, the Democrats' action snuck under the radar.
"As the news media reporters were all running to write their stories about the bill passing, there was a sneak attack by the Democratic leadership," he says. "So the bill is currently blocked."
Will the move be successful? Johnson says there is a chance it could be. "The bill has to go to a conference committee to iron out the final version and be sent to the president," he explains. "And the abortion lobby and the senators that they're working with -- mostly Democrats -- think that they can run out the clock because there's only about five weeks left before adjournment in the Congressional session."
Johnson says unless the 14 Democrats who voted for the bill buck their leaders, the bill will likely remain blocked.
Senators Delivering a Cross Block
Meanwhile, Democrats are apparently blocking progress on another piece of legislation that has been at the forefront of pro-family and conservative agendas of late. It concerns the future of a 29-foot-high concrete cross in Southern California.
August 1 was the original deadline imposed by a California judge for the removal of the cross, which sits high atop a hillside in La Jolla, near San Diego. While a U.S. Supreme Court ruling has stayed that order, the cross -- which is incorporated into a veterans war memorial on Mt. Soledad -- remains in jeopardy. And that is why Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is upset.
Sessions has introduced a measure -- identical to one passed earlier this month by the House -- that would preserve the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial by transferring possession of the monument to the federal government. The cross has been at the center of a years-long legal battle between cross supporters and an atheist who claims the structure violates the so-called separation of church and state. But Democrats in the Senate are blocking the bill by placing a parliamentary "hold" on it, says the senator from Alabama.
"I am disappointed that some Senate liberals would object to protecting this important historic landmark that is so dear to our veterans and their families," says Sessions in a press statement. "This bill enjoys strong support from the people of San Diego, the American Legion and Congress," he points out -- not to mention the support both of California's liberal senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.
Sessions is calling on Democrats to allow a vote. "This is another example of an extreme interpretation of church and state questions that moves us towards a complete elimination of any religious references from the public square," he states.
The Alabama lawmaker has said he would invoke a parliamentary maneuver to force a vote if the Democrats continue to object.
