Congressional Spending Bill Fails People in U.S. and Abroad

To say that we’re disappointed in the spending bill released in Congress late last night would be a gross understatement.

It was probably inevitable when only one party is trying to govern and the other is willing to let everything fall apart. At this tragic moment in history, the Democrats are looking out for the people of Ukraine and the wider world. With the rarest of exceptions, Republican politicians are looking out only for themselves and their most fanatical supporters. They have failed to participate in this process in good faith. Indeed, if wasn’t for bad faith, they’d have no faith at all.

Their bad faith, as usual, is doing real harm to real people.

This bill fails people both at home and abroad by failing to provide adequate funding for family planning and reproductive health programs. It fails to once and for all eliminate the threat of unilateral imposition of the odious Global Gag Rule. And it fails to respond to the threats to reproductive freedom faced by people across the United States and around the world. This failure belongs to Mitch McConnell and his bunch. Once again, they’re holding innocent people hostage.

There are at least 218 million women in the world with an unmet need for contraceptives. The President proposed increased funding, the House approved increased funding, and the Senate bill included increased funding—and yet, funding remains flat in this bill. We need better.

The benefits of investing in these programs are immense. It improves the lives of families. It strengthens communities. It eases poverty. It allows for educational and economic opportunity for hundreds of millions of people—especially girls and women. It helps to protect the environment and will be crucial to help address the challenge of climate change.

We are all failed by this.

Contact: bdixon@popconnect.org | 202-974-7744