{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-colleagues-push-to-keep-anti-lgbtq-and-anti-abortion-provisions-out-of-critical-government-funding-bills", "Hirono, Colleagues Push to Keep Anti-LGBTQ+ and Anti-Abortion Provisions Out of Critical Government Funding Bills", "2023-12-19", "2023", "2023-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Mazie K. Hirono", "H001042", "www.hirono.senate.gov", "hirono", "https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) joined Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and 44 of their colleagues in sending a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) urging them to reject any new poison pill policy riders in the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills, including the anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion policy provisions that House Republicans inserted into their appropriations bills.\n\n\u201cThe Senate has had tremendous success both passing bipartisan bills in committee and on the Senate floor because these bills are free of new poison pill riders,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cUnfortunately, the House appropriations bills are filled with new highly partisan provisions, including anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ riders, that should be removed from any final appropriations bills.\u201d\n\nThese \u201cpoison pill policy riders\u201d aim to make changes to laws that would fail to withstand scrutiny of congressional debate by attaching them to \u201cmust-pass\u201d measures such as appropriation bills.\n\n\u201cOur country is facing a reproductive health care crisis, one that has been accelerated by the Supreme Court\u2019s extremist decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization,\u201d the Senators continued. \u201cHouse Republicans have proposed several new anti-abortion policy riders. These riders include a provision to force back in place medically unnecessary restrictions on medication abortion, a measure to stop the implementation of the Biden administration\u2019s executive orders to protect access to abortion care, and a measure that would jeopardize access to essential postgraduate medical training in abortion care.\u201d\n\nNot only are there anti-abortion poison pills included in the House bills, there are attacks on the LGBTQ+ community as well.\n\n\u201cHouse Republicans have used the appropriations process to push extremist anti-LGBTQ+ measures, which threaten to disrupt the lives and fundamental dignity of the LGBTQ+ community,\u201d the Senators wrote. \u201cAgainst this backdrop, House Republicans have introduced more than 50 anti-LGBTQ+ provisions across all 12 appropriations bills. These provisions include those allowing the government to discriminate against married same-sex couples as well as language to prevent the administration from enforcing laws to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. Seven of the House\u2019s twelve appropriations bills also contain dangerous riders that ban access to gender-affirming care, which would deprive transgender people of medically necessary and often life-saving healthcare.\u201d\n\nThe Senators concluded, \u201cControversial poison pill provisions like those riddled throughout the House appropriations bills will severely undermine Congress\u2019 ability to push forward must-pass funding measures to keep the government open and working for the American people.\u201d\n\nThe letter is endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Guttmacher Institute, Human Rights Campaign, National Center for Transgender Equality, National Council of Jewish Women, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Women\u2019s Law Center, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), Whitman-Walker Institute.\n\nIn addition to Senators Hirono, Baldwin, Merkley, and Booker on this letter are Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tom Carper (D-DE), Bob Casey (D-PA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Luj\u00e1n (D-NM), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).\n\nThe full text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins:\n\nWe write to urge you to keep the FY24 appropriations bills free of any new poison pill policy riders. Partisan, discriminatory, and harmful policy riders have no place in appropriations bills. The Senate has had tremendous success both passing bipartisan bills in committee and on the Senate floor because these bills are free of new poison pill riders. Unfortunately, the House appropriations bills are filled with new highly partisan provisions, including anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ riders, that should be removed from any final appropriations bills.\n\nOur country is facing a reproductive health care crisis, one that has been accelerated by the Supreme Court\u2019s extremist decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization. As of November 7, 2023, 14 states are enforcing abortion bans at any point in pregnancy and seven states have imposed abortion bans with limits that range from six to 18 weeks. These bans leave 1 in 3 women, as well as transgender and nonbinary people, without access to abortion and disproportionately impact people of color, people with disabilities, young people, people living in rural areas, and people with low incomes.\n\nYet in the midst of this crisis, House Republicans have proposed several new anti-abortion policy riders. These riders include a provision to force back in place medically unnecessary restrictions on medication abortion, a measure to stop the implementation of the Biden administration\u2019s executive orders to protect access to abortion care, and a measure that would jeopardize access to essential postgraduate medical training in abortion care. If adopted, these provisions would seriously undermine pregnant people\u2019s ability to make decisions about their bodies and providers\u2019 ability to provide necessary care.\n\nAt the same time, House Republicans have used the appropriations process to push extremist anti-LGBTQ+ measures, which threaten to disrupt the lives and fundamental dignity of the LGBTQ+ community. Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is already on the rise; in 2023 alone, more than 575 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced across 41 state legislatures, and more than 80 of those bills have been signed into law.\n\nAgainst this backdrop, House Republicans have introduced more than 50 anti-LGBTQ+ provisions across all 12 appropriations bills. These provisions include those allowing the government to discriminate against married same-sex couples as well as language to prevent the administration from enforcing laws to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. Seven of the House\u2019s twelve appropriations bills also contain dangerous riders that ban access to gender-affirming care, which would deprive transgender people of medically necessary and often life-saving healthcare.\n\nControversial poison pill provisions like those riddled throughout the House appropriations bills will severely undermine Congress\u2019 ability to push forward must-pass funding measures to keep the government open and working for the American people.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-colleagues-push-to-keep-anti-lgbtq-and-anti-abortion-provisions-out-of-critical-government-funding-bills"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4181479346007109, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}