Free Republic

As Congress debates ObamaCare, one issue that almost stopped the law in 2009 -- yet still receives scant media coverage -- is the law's subsidies for abortion coverage. ObamaCare is funded through mandatory spending so as to avoid the Hyde Amendment, the provision which stops appropriated funds for the Department of Health and Human Services from paying for abortion or even subsidizing plans with abortion coverage. The President promised when the health care bill passed that it would not cover abortion, but like FRC warned during the debate over ObamaCare, buried deep within the 2,700 pages is language Nancy Pelosi...

Those close to the case of a Christian pastor in Iran who's facing a death sentence for refusing to recant his faith now fear he could be killed any day now. The American Center for Law and Justice warned there is an "increased likelihood" that the execution order against Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been signed and could be carried out at any time. "The likelihood that the Iranian regime will execute him increases by the day," ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow said. He added that the situation is more "dire" than ever. Meanwhile, several members of Congress have joined the...

As Congress continues to battle over budget cuts, one House subcommittee took the first step toward defunding a slush fund of taxpayer money used for anti-obesity campaigns throughout the country. In a little-noticed hearing last Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee voted out legislation that would repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund that was created in the health care reform bill. The fund is a permanently authorized and appropriated subsidy for the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) initiative (originally funded through the Recovery Act) that gives grants that directly financed anti-obesity campaigns and soda-tax efforts...

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While pro-life advocates lost their battle to defeat Rep. Fred Upton’s bid to head the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, they have scored a major victory with the selection of Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) to chair the subcommittee on health. “Appointment of pro-life champion Congressman Joe Pitts (R-PA) as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health is a major pro-life victory, as it is the gateway for legislation that embodies almost every pro-life protection America has consistently affirmed in polls and elections,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony...

Five Republican representatives – Chris Smith, Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts, Trent Franks and Anh "Joseph" Cao – have written a letter to Ugandan President Yoweri Mouseveni pressing him to stop pending legislation that would severely criminalize homosexuality and sometimes impose the death penalty for homosexual acts. In the letter, which you can read in full here, the men say their religious faith requires them to oppose the legislation because it contradicts the "foundational Christian belief in the inherent dignity and worth of all men and women." The Ugandan law has become a hot topic in America because, as National Public...

The President’s critics in Congress have been trying to refocus the national debate on our involvement in Iraq recently by offering a number of proposals to withdraw our troops. These proposals have come in a variety of forms – some calling for immediate withdrawal, others for a more measured exit strategy – but they all share one thing: each proposal calls for President Bush to set a timetable to withdraw our troops from Iraq. To its credit, the Bush administration has welcomed this debate. But while open to disagreement from the other side of the aisle, the President, Vice President,...

(CNSNews.com) -- Rep. Joe Pitts, a Pennsylvania Republican, has introduced a bill intended to speed the process of building more oil refineries in this country, something that would boost the supply and possibly lower the price of gasoline. Two major hurricanes have temporarily reduced America's oil refining capacity by as much as a third, at a time when world demand for oil has boosted prices to unprecedented levels for American motorists. Rep. Pitts' bill calls on the Bush administration to identify three U.S. military bases slated for closure where oil refineries could be located. The plan, said Pitts, would eliminate...

Dear Friend of TVC: This Thursday, May 1st, the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on amendments to H.R. 1298, a global AIDS bill that will provide $15 billion dollars to fight AIDS during the next five years. TVC is urging you to contact your U.S. Representative immediately and ask that he or she vote YES on two key amendments: Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) is offering an amendment that requires that 33% of direct U.S. aid should go to abstinence-until-marriage programs. The nation of Uganda has emphasized abstinence and marital faithfulness and it has actually reduced the spread of...