Budget Amendments, Part III

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Two notable amendments to the House CR that we’ve not mentioned:

Yesterday, Republicans passed an amendment to block implementation of the FCC’s  Net Neutrality rules, which would prohibit Internet providers from favoring certain content over wired networks. The vote was 240-181, and came largely along party lines. For months, Republicans have cast efforts to implement Net Neutrality — even the relatively mild rules chairman Julius Genachowski submitted — as unnecessary and onerous regulation. Conservative advocacy groups have falsely cast it as a “government takeover” of the Internet. The amendment does not violate the rule on the floor, since it mandates only that federal funding not be used to implement Net neutrality.

Today, in a 240-185 vote that also fell largely by party lines, Republicans passed Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to zero out federal funds to Planned Parenthood. The debate included an emotional floor speech from Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California, who yesterday recalled her own abortion. “For you to stand on this floor and to suggest, as you have, that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcomed or done cavalierly or done without any thought is preposterous,” Speier told Republican Chris Smith of New Jersey. “To think that we are here tonight debating this issue when the American people, if they are listening, are scratching their heads and wondering what does this have to do with me getting a job? What does this have to do with reducing the deficit? And the answer is nothing at all.”