Thursday: Abortion bill next in the House

The House on Thursday takes up H.R. 358, the Protect Life Act, which would amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to ensure that new programs under the law are not used to fund abortion or cover any healthcare plans that include abortion coverage.

After a day of some bipartisan cooperation passing three free trade agreements, today is likely to revert to a highly partisan debate in which Democrats will attack Republicans for renewing their attack on federal aid for abortion.

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), has said PPACA is "riddled with loopholes" that could allow taxpayer subsidies to fund abortion, and said the bill is needed to extend a prohibition to PPACA programs. He's backed up by 145 cosponsors.

House work on this bill will be broken up by a 4 p.m. address to a joint meeting of the House and Senate by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, just a day after the House and Senate approved the long-stalled free trade agreement with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Obama could sign those agreements into law sometime today.

Because of Lee's remarks, the House meets earlier Thursday than normal, at 9:30 a.m. for morning speeches and then at 11:30 a.m. for legislative work.

Aside from the abortion bill, members are also expected to finish work on H.R. 2250, which would delay pending EPA rules on boiler emissions. One amendment vote is scheduled, on a proposal from Rep. Steven Cohen (D-Tenn.) to allow EPA to add illness-related work absences as a factor as the EPA decides when to finally impose the boiler rules.

The Senate, which managed to approve a China currency bill this week but failed to advance President Obama's amended jobs bill, is left without much of an agenda today. The Senate meets at 10 a.m. for speeches, and at noon takes up three district court judge nominations.

Votes on these nominations are expected at 2 p.m.: Alison Nathan, for the southern district of New York; Susan Owens, for the western district of Arkansas; and Katherine Forest, for the southern district of New York.