Saturday, May 5, 2007

Bush Threatens to Veto New Abortion Policies

President Bush is warning Democratic leaders that any attempt to weaken federal policies that restrict abortion will be met with a veto.

White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said yesterday that the warning, issued in letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), was intended to stop abortion amendments from being added to spending bills and other legislation that Congress will be considering in the coming weeks.

"There's nothing specific pending right now," Fratto said.

The Republicans who held power in past sessions of Congress ensured that spending bills included language prohibiting federal funding for abortion except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest, and restricting funding for international family-planning groups that might give advice on or provide abortions.

Now in the minority, House and Senate Republicans recently urged the president to make clear that any weakening of those restrictions would be unacceptable.

"The standing pattern is that appropriate conscience protections must be in place for health care entities, and that taxpayer dollars may not be used in coercive or involuntary family planning programs," Bush said in letters dated Thursday.

Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley, said that "if the president is serious about finding common ground on this divisive issue, he should support Senator Reid's efforts to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in this country." Reid and others are sponsoring family-planning services legislation.

A 12-year U.S. effort to financially squeeze Colombian drug lords has led to more than $1 billion in assets and companies being seized, frozen or put out of business, the Treasury said.

In a report on economic sanctions against Colombian drug cartels, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the program has significantly disrupted the cartels' financial operations.

The Treasury said that at the end of 2006, it had imposed sanctions against 527 companies and 815 individuals on its list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers.

· A Freudian slip? President Bush may have been sending a signal about the fate of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales yesterday. At a Cinco de Mayo celebration in the Rose Garden, Bush introduced his old friend as "the eternal general of the United States."

· The National Rifle Association is urging the administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit terrorism suspects from buying firearms. Backed by the Justice Department, the bill would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terrorism suspects.

· Most foreigners wanting to come to the United States will soon have to bare all -- their fingers, that is -- when applying for U.S. visas, the State Department said. Instead of scanning the prints of just two fingers of visa applicants, as is now the case, U.S. embassies and consulates are beginning to require scans of all 10 digits to better screen out undesirables, it said.

-- From News Services and Staff Reports