Politics

Hyde Amendment Disagreements Threaten To Permanently Derail Biden’s Big Spending Bill

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Shelby Talcott Senior White House Correspondent
Font Size:

Differing stances within the Democratic party on the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds for most abortions, may derail President Joe Biden’s reconciliation bill.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill and Biden’s Build Back Better agenda have stalled in Congress as Democratic lawmakers spar on various issues. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have openly balked at the $3.5 trillion price tag for the reconciliation bill and in response, progressives have issued threats to tank the bipartisan bill.

While the price tag is one of the focal points for Manchin and Sinema, it’s not the only issue. Manchin, who has long issued pro-life comments, told the National Review last week that the bill is “dead on arrival” if it doesn’t include the Hyde Amendment.

“We’re not taking the Hyde amendment off. Hyde’s going to be on,” Manchin said. “It has to be. It has to be. That’s dead on arrival if that’s gone.”

Following Manchin’s comments, Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chairwoman of the Progressive Caucus, told CNN on Sunday that she absolutely would not vote for a bill that includes the amendment. She later noted that it’s “a negotiation” while claiming that most “of the country does not support” the Hyde Amendment.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki also weighed in on the debate when asked where Biden stands on including the amendment in the reconciliation bill. She told reporters Monday that Biden “opposes the Hyde Amendment” and his opinion has “not changed,” though she declined to directly address Manchin’s comments.

Psaki also said she wouldn’t be negotiating on the package from the podium, a comment often heard from the administration amid their efforts to get Democrats united on Biden’s agenda.

“The Hyde Amendment is a red line,” Manchin said later Monday following Psaki’s remarks.

The White House has not noted how it plans to overcome Manchin’s “red line” stance on the amendment. The administration has so far kept its negotiating tactics close, opting to allow lawmakers to speak for themselves regarding meetings and discussions with Biden. (RELATED: CatholicVote Appeals To Sen. Manchin’s Faith, Calls On Him To Reject Becerra Nomination)

While it’s clear Biden remains steadfastly against the Hyde Amendment – and Manchin for it – what’s unclear is how much the current president is willing to negotiate on the subject. If the president buckles on the Hyde Amendment to get Manchin’s support, other Democratic lawmakers like Jayapal appear ready to step up and oppose the bill.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, for one, expressed concern over the subject, telling CNN on Sunday that he’s seen countless “major pieces of legislation founder on this issue” throughout his Senatorial career.

“I don’t want to say anything now to jeopardize the negotiations, but I hope that we’ll keep in perspective that what we’re trying to do is going to have a positive impact on families and children,” Durbin said. “And we should move toward that goal together. We’ve got to find ways to deal with this issue, honestly, but I hope it is not the decisive issue when it comes to the future of this package.”

Durbin noted that he’s voted both ways in the past and said he doesn’t “want to let the entire package break down” over this issue.

Biden’s stance on the Hyde Amendment is a new one – up until June 2019, the president backed the amendment. Biden issued a surprising flip during his run for president just one day after his campaign reaffirmed his support for the Hyde Amendment.

The president’s reversal followed multiple 2020 Democratic contenders using his original position to go after the current president.

“I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to … exercise their constitutionally protected right,” Biden said during a Democratic National Committee gala in 2019. “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code.”

Biden said he would not apologize for his “last position” and slammed Republicans during the speech over health care.

“When, in fact, there is this enormous pressure and even threat to close down clinics that are available in the past for women who do not have the funds, but are able to have them paid for privately as we’ve been able to do, that was one thing. But we now see so many Republican governors denying health care to millions of the most poorest, most vulnerable Americans by refusing even Medicaid expansion,” the then-presidential candidate said at the time.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel