$300,000 allocated to House panel investigating abortion providers

Mary Troyan | USA Today

WASHINGTON — A special congressional investigation into how abortion providers handle fetal tissue will start off with a $300,000 budget that Republicans are diverting from a $1 million reserve fund.

The Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, chaired by Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, was created in October after an uproar over Planned Parenthood’s role in providing researchers with tissue from aborted fetuses.

Republicans have named eight members to the panel, a new House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. Democrats, who oppose the investigation, appointed six members.

A staff director for the investigation was recently hired, indicating the probe will require additional resources not already allocated to the full committee.

The House Administration Committee last week moved $300,000 to Energy and Commerce to cover expenses for the special investigation through Jan. 2. The money came from a House Administration Committee reserve fund that pays for unanticipated expenses during the 2015-16 term of the 114th Congress.

Democrats opposed the transfer because there was no public debate and because they believe taxpayer money should not be used for the investigation.

“On the substance, we believe spending one cent on this investigative panel would constitute an indefensible use of public funds if not a deliberate betrayal of public trust,” according to a letter signed by the three Democrats on the House Administration Committee, led by Rep. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania.

Blackburn has said the subcommittee will look at medical procedures and business practices related to fetal tissue procurement, federal funding and support for abortion providers, late-term abortions and medical care of babies born alive after an attempted abortion. It also will consider possible changes to laws or regulations.

“No issue is more deserving of our undivided attention than protecting the dignity of human life,” Blackburn said when the panel was created. “This will be a broad-based, information-gathering, fact-finding mission to answer questions about how we treat and protect life in this country. This is a discussion that this country must have."

Blackburn has not singled out Planned Parenthood, but the controversy over the handling of fetal tissue began after undercover videos surfaced this summer showing employees of the organization talking about selling tissue from aborted fetuses. Planned Parenthood has denied a profit motive and said women are asked whether they want to donate to medical research.

Blackburn announced last week that former Justice Department lawyer and congressional staffer March Bell has been named the subcommittee's staff director and chief counsel. Bell is a former senior counsel for human trafficking within the Justice Department's civil rights division.

The special Energy and Commerce subcommittee will centralize other ongoing congressional investigations involving Planned Parenthood, according to Blackburn.

A Republican panel member, Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, said she expects the subcommittee to hold its first hearing before the end of the year.

“We have hired the staff director and we’re getting a legal team in place,” Hartzler said. “They’re about ready to go.”

Democrats have dubbed the panel the GOP’s Select Committee to Attack Women’s Health.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said Democrats will challenge why the investigation is necessary.

“It’s at their peril that they attack health care access for women in this country,” she said. “Women are going to be watching.”

Planned Parenthood announced last month its health centers involved in fetal tissue research would no longer accept reimbursement for expenses related to tissue donation, even though they consider it a legal practice.

The special Energy and Commerce subcommittee on infant lives is slightly different than the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which was created as a separate committee. That panel has spent more than $4 million since May 2014 investigating the 2012 terror attacks in Libya.

Contributing: Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY