Washington Wire Vol. 1, No. 2 END OF LEGISLATIVE SESSION WRAP UP Opponents of RLPA have conducted a vigorous misinformation campaign and assert that it will undermine civil rights laws, particularly those designed to benefit gay persons. This has prompted key Democratic senators to block RLPA from getting to the senate floor. In the final weeks of the session, Nathan Diament was involved in intensive discussions with Senators Hatch & Kennedy to reach a compromise that would allow RLPA to be included in the final budget resolution. While these talks did not yield that result, they did narrow the differences to the degree that passage of RLPA early next year is more likely than not. More
on this topic... On October 28, the House of Representatives passed the Pain Relief Promotion Act of 1999, a measure designed to empower physicians to aggressively provide palliative care to patients in pain and to ban physician assisted suicide. “PRPA” will create additional protections under the law for physicians who use controlled substances to relieve patients’ extreme pain. The measure provides a “safe harbor” for doctors who prescribe controlled substances (ie: narcotics) to reduce pain even if the use of such drugs unintentionally leads to a patient’s death. The House measure also overruled an Oregon law that allows doctors to issue lethal prescriptions forthe terminally ill. This measure now awaits Senate action where Don Nickles (R-OK) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) are its lead proponents. The policy embodied by this legislation closely tracks that endorsed by Halakha and OU Resolutions. We plan to work with these members over the adjournment to secure passage of this important measure early next year. More
on this topic... One week prior to adjournment, the House passed a measure (the “Fathers Count Act”) that will fund expanded job training and employment opportunities as well as support programs for low-income families. It sets aside $150 million over six years in grants to nonprofit groups that provide these kinds of programs. Importantly, the measure includes a “charitable choice” provision that will allow faith based social service groups to apply for and receive these grants on an equal par to non-religious social service providers. More
on this topic... On October 13, a delegation of 40 members of the OU leadership
traveled to Washington to meet with members of Congress and the Clinton Administration
including: Speaker of the House Hastert, Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott, 10 U.S.
Senators including presidential candidate John McCain, Judiciary Committee Chairman
Orrin Hatch, Barbara Mikulski, John Ashcroft as well as White House Budget Director Jack
Lew and Middle East Coordinator Dennis Ross. The topics focused upon in meeting with
these leaders included current issues related to the Mid-east peace process, the Religious
Liberty Protection Act, and the Workplace Religious Freedom Act. On October 20, a delegation of 20 Orthodox Union members from Ohio
traveled to Washington to meet with their congressional delegation. In addition to
meeting members of the House representing their respective districts, delegates met for
nearly one hour with Senator Mike DeWine and discussed a broad range of issues including,
again, Mideast peace and religious liberty. Congressional adjournment is an important period to communicate with
members of congress, home in their districts, and staffers with regard to issues we hope
congress will take up next year. Thus, in Washington we will be working to gather
more co-sponsors for the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, continuing discussion over the
Religious Liberty Protection Act as well as other measures. We would encourage you
to do the same with members of congress who are home and listening to the views of their
constituents. Since our last Washington Wire, the U.S. Supreme Court’s activity with regard to OU/IPA related issues has more to do with what the Court has declined to address, than cases it has accepted for review. The Court declined to hear another appeal over the Kiryas Joel school district; it declined to review a ruling upholding Maine’s practice of excluding parochial school families from a rural voucher program; and also declined to review an Arizona tax credit for parochial school scholarship contributions.
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