On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate held a procedural vote on U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville’s resolution to block the Biden Administration’s rule authorizing abortions at VA healthcare facilities. U.S. Senator Katie Britt is an original cosponsor of Tuberville’s resolution and voted in favor of the resolution on Wednesday.
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) gives Congress the authority to review major rules issued by federal agencies before they take effect. If Congress disapproves of a rule via resolution, the rule will have no force or effect under the law. Since this is a resolution rather than formal legislation, it is easier procedurally to bring it to the floor.
“We’re going to vote to overturn it because it is illegal, it is wrong, and it abuses taxpayer dollars,” Tuberville said at a press conference prior to the vote. “In September, the VA announced they were going to start performing abortions. The VA had never done abortions before.”
“Congress banned abortion at the VA 30 years ago,” Tuberville explained. “It was unanimous. One of the Senators who voted for that bill wasJoe Biden. We have never repealed this law. It is still on the books, and the Administration needs to follow it. The Administration doesn’t get to change the law without a vote in Congress.”
“This is about taxpayer dollars. The Administration is spending money Congress never authorized and never appropriated,” stated Tuberville. “We’re supposed to have an appropriations process in this city. Yet the Biden Administration seems to think they don’t need to follow the appropriations process.”
“The Biden Administration is clearly using the VA to circumvent and erode the longstanding, bipartisan, and lifesaving law of the land that prohibits hard-earned taxpayer dollars from being used for abortions,” said Sen. Britt. “At the end of the day, the VA should be focused on eliminating bureaucratic barriers, clearing backlogs, and ensuring our veterans have access to the world-class health care that they deserve, not funding the far-left’s radical political agenda. I will continue to fight to defend life, support parents, grow opportunities for hardworking families, and preserve the American Dream for our children and our children’s children.”
The measure did not gain the majority threshold needed to advance.
In September, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) new rule directs VA facilities to perform abortions, even in jurisdictions like Alabama where state law regulates or outlaws abortion in conflict with the federal rule.
Tuberville voiced concerns that the rule makes VA healthcare facilities unfriendly workplaces for Christian doctors and nurses and potentially violates their constitutional rights to practice their religion.
“We’ve got Christian doctors and nurses at VA facilities worried about getting fired because of who they are,” Tuberville said. “We don’t need to purge medical staff from our VA system right now. We want to attract people to work at the VA, not drive them away.”
