Eagle Forum Debuts 117th Congressional Report
2021 was a busy year in Washington, D.C. with the start of both a new Presidential Administration and a new Congress. Eagle Forum’s forthcoming 117th Congressional Report highlights some of the major pieces of legislation and Presidential actions that happened this past year.
In this week’s Capitol Hill Report, we highlight a few of President Biden’s and the 117th Congress’s major actions — the rest of which are found in the 117th Congressional Report. To begin, as soon as Biden took office in January, he reversed ten Trump-era executive orders that secured the border, and then issued a “100-day pause” on all deportations. This encouraged immigrants to flood the southern borders causing a massive crisis. Biden deemed Vice President Kamala Harris as “Border Czar,” but she took no action and refused to visit the border. States were left to clean up the mess by diverting their own resources to the issue.
The Supreme Court ruled against the Biden administration regarding the Remain in Mexico program. This program required asylum seekers who travel through Mexico to apply for asylum there first.
In terms of life, the 117th Congress was intent on the removal of the Hyde Amendment, which has been around since 1976. Hyde is a pro-life appropriations rider, traditionally in the Department of Health and Human Services spending bill, that prevents taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions. Despite objections from Republican members in the House, the Democrats successfully stripped Hyde from the HHS FY 2022 appropriation bill. The legislation also removed the Weldon Amendment, which protects organizations, that do not perform abortions, from being denied federal money. Thankfully, this bill never passed in the Senate, despite being subject to a simple majority vote or reconciliation. With such slim margins in the Senate, the Democrats needed solidarity. Yet, Senator Joe Manchin from WV would not support the bill without Hyde’s inclusion.
Related to this, in February of 2021, House Democrats introduced H.J.Res. 17, a resolution to remove the deadline of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Our Republican allies were much more educated about the issue this past year with only four Republicans voting in favor. The resolution passed the House; however, the Senate never took it up.
Yet another issue related to women was debated in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022. This legislation passed the House with the provision requiring women to register for the military draft. Shortly after, to everyone’s surprise, seven Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to include the provision to register women for the Selective Service.
Eagle Forum began working immediately with Senate offices to garner opposition to the provision. Senators Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced amendments to strike the language from the bill. Eventually, the Senate drafted a new bill without the women in draft language. This bill passed the Senate and was signed by President Biden.
For more information related to the budget, COVID-19, immigration, and other policy measures, please be sure to read Eagle Forum’s 117th Congressional Report. The report highlights how important it is to make sure you are signed up for our legislative alerts. Without your help sounding the alarm, we may have not been able to help influence lawmakers from supporting certain measures, like women in the draft. Thank YOU for your support in 2021. We look forward to working with you again in 2022.
