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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Steve Daines (R-MT), along with U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), sent a follow-up letter to Dale Cabaniss, Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), urging her to end the illegal Obama-era policy of administering government contributions for Members of Congress and Congressional staff in connection with health insurance plans that cover elective abortion, in violation of the longstanding Smith Amendment. The letter was signed by 79 Members of Congress. Rubio, Daines, and Smith previously called for this action in a letter to OPM Acting Director Weichert on June 13, 2019.
The full text of the letter is below.
Dear Director Cabaniss:
On June 13, 2019, we wrote to urge the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to end the illegal Obama-era policy of administering government contributions for Members of Congress and Congressional staff in connection with health insurance plans that cover elective abortion, in violation of the Smith (NJ) Amendment. As you know, this longstanding provision of law – recently renewed for fiscal year 2020 by Public Law 116-93 (December 20, 2019)– bars OPM from administering government contributions in connection with any health plan for federal employees that covers elective abortion.
We are deeply dismayed that OPM chose to allow these illegal taxpayer-funded abortion subsidies to continue in Congressional health plans for plan year 2020. In plan year 2020, 57 subsidy-eligible plans cover elective abortion, while only 9 plans exclude such coverage.
We also want to make clear that Obamacare’s separate abortion payment schema – even as strengthened by a recent final rule (84 FR 71674) – is not an acceptable substitute for the Smith Amendment’s requirement for the complete exclusion of plans that cover elective abortion. The Smith Amendment does not allow Members of Congress and Congressional staff to operate under a different set of rules than other federal employees when it comes to taxpayer funding of abortion.
We ask that you publicly commit that, beginning in the next plan year, 2021, the Smith Amendment will be fully enforced for Congressional health plans. Governmental contributions should be limited to plans which do not cover elective abortion.
Sincerely,