Senate Funding Bill Far Better Than House Version

On Thursday, July 25, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 2025 State Department and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) funding bill.

In marked contrast to the House version of the bill, it is free of right-wing culture war provisions. The Senate bill, as originally drafted, called for keeping funding for international family planning programs steady at $607.5 million — as opposed to the House’s 24% cut. The Senate bill also dedicates $32.5 million of that to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Importantly, the Senate rejected the House plan to reinstate the Global Gag Rule.

Unfortunately, it still includes the Helms Amendment. The Helms Amendment prohibits U.S. foreign assistance funding from being used to provide abortion “as a method of family planning.” This limitation, though, has been enforced as an outright ban since it was passed in 1973.

During the committee debate, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) proposed an amendment to increase funding for UNFPA and for bilateral family planning accounts. Sen. Shaheen said, “An increase in family planning doesn’t just increase the quality of a woman’s life, it greatly improves the lives surrounding her, leading to increased quality of life and reductions in maternal and child mortality.”

The Shaheen amendment called for increasing overall family planning funding to $635.1 million, with $35.1 million dedicated to UNFPA. This would allow an additional 2.2 million women and couples to access contraceptives and would prevent 773,000 unintended pregnancies.

The amendment was adopted by a vote of 16-13, with two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — joining all Democrats but Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in voting yes.