Session #104 · 1995–97

Speech #1040107401

Chairman. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his participation in what will be a meaningful debate. however I might say that while the LivingstonSmith amendment kills title X. it certainly does not kill family planning. The fact is that the LivingstonSmith amendment transfers the entire $193.3 million for title X. which the Greenwood amendment would hope to restore. the same amount allocated in fiscal year 1995. and it maintains that amount and places the entire $193.3 million into the maternal and child health care block grant and the community migrant health centers program. divided between them. About 60 percent of title X funding or $116.3 million would be transferred to the maternal and child health block grant. and the remaining 40 percent or $77 million will be transferred to the community and migrant health centers program. Mr. Chairman. the most important thing is that this amendment does not. does not. eliminate or cut one single dollar in funding for family planning programs. What it does do is transfer the funding from a separate categorical family planning program centralized here in Washington into two other comprehensive health care programs for lowincome women and children. Both of these programs already provide family planning services. so this amendment does not cut family planning. does not eliminate family planning. and even if I were to eliminate the funding as opposed to transferring it to other programs. family planning funds already provided by the Federal Government would still be considerable. Family planning funds and services are already provided under Medicaid. under the maternal and child health block grant program today. and the social services block grant and the community and migrant health centers program. In fact. the total conservative estimate that the Federal Government will spend on domestic family planning services in fiscal year 1995 is over $750 million. threequarters of a billion dollars. and that is if we eliminate this funding. which we do not do. We transfer every single. dollar of it. But. in 1994 alone. approximately 2.6 million Medicaideligible people receive family planning services totaling over $580 million apart from this program. This is in addition to the millions of dollars available from State and private resources. Under the LivingstonSmith amendment the same private and public nonprofit institutions. the same ones that currently receive title X family planning funds. can apply for funds for family planning under the maternal and child health block grant and the Community and Migrant Health Centers program. Under the maternal and child health care block grant program the decision as to what entities will receive funds will be left strictly to the State and local authorities. Now that is what opponents may not like. but it localizes the decisionmaking. Under the community and migrant health centers categorical program the decision will be left to well over 150 community and migrant health centers in every State and territory who are allowed under present law to provide family planning services or. under present law. can contract out to other public and private organizations for family planning services. These community and migrant health centers already do contract out for other services. According to HHS own budget justifications. over 115 centers have contracting procedures with outside groups and have contracted out for other managed health care services. The maternal and child health care block grant program serves currently 13 million lowincome women and children. age 19 and under. and infants.
Keywords matched
Migrant migrant

Classification

Target group
Sentiment
Neutral
Stereotyping
No
Confidence
80%
Model
gemini-2.0-flash
Framing
Legal / procedural

Speaker & context

Speaker
ROBERT LIVINGSTON
Party
R
Chamber
H
State
LA
Gender
M
Date
1995-08-03
Speech ID
1040107401
Paragraph
#0
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