SENATE: Amnesty and Human Cloning 
AMNESTY: On March 12, the House of Representatives passed the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act (H.R. 1885). Unfortunately, this border security bill includes a provision permitting illegal aliens to remain in the United States. The bill can still be killed in the Senate. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) calls this bill "sheer lunacy" and said he will delay passage of H.R. 1885 over this provision until the full Senate debates the issue.

ACTION: 
Tell your Senators to oppose amnesty for illegal aliens because it is "sheer lunacy" at this time.

HUMAN CLONING: On July 31, 2001, the House of Representatives passed the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001 (H.R. 2505) with bipartisan support (265 to 162.) The President supports the bill, but the Senate has not yet acted on the companion bill (S.1899), sponsored by Senator Brownback. S. 1899 would ban human cloning for reproductive purposes as well as for cloning human embryos for destructive lab experimentation. The biotech companies are lobbying hard to permit human cloning for so-called research. At this time, we do not have the votes to pass the real human cloning ban (S. 1899).

ACTION: 
Tell your Senators to publicly support S. 1899 to ban human cloning.

Reaching the following Senators is especially important: Bachus, Bayh, Bingaman, Breaux, Byrd, Campbell, Carnahan, Cleland, Cochran, Collins, Conrad, Dodd, Dorgan, Hatch, Hollings, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Lieberman, Lugar, Gordon Smith, Snowe, Stevens, Thurmond, Torricelli.

HOUSE: Abstinence Education 
ABSTINENCE EDUCATION: The Title V abstinence education program is up for reauthorization as part of welfare reform. At the end of January, the President called for $135 million for abstinence education in FY 2003, which matches the amount marked for "comprehensive" sex education programs. While reaching funding parity is a step in the right direction, the primary battle will be to protect the abstinence-until-marriage definition used to determine program eligibility. Currently, programs that teach contraceptive use or abstinence merely "until you are ready" are not eligible for these funds ¾ and it should stay that way. Planned Parenthood is pushing to water-down the definition to permit eligibility for so-called abstinence-plus programs, which are really condoms for kids complete with cucumber demonstrations and sexual role-playing. The first round of battle is expected in the House

Energy and Commerce Committee, which is expected to mark-up a bill around April 11. The entire bill will be on the House floor in May.

ACTION: 
Tell your Representative to support the President’s funding request and to protect the current abstinence-until-marriage definition.

Please contact the following Commerce Committee Members immediately: Bass, Bono, Tom Davis, Doyle, Ehrlich, Fossella, Ganske, Gordon, Greenwood, Chris John, Stupak, Upton, Walden, Whitfield, Heather Wilson