FY2005 Defense Authorization Bill Heads to Conference

After more than four weeks of debate, the Senate approved, 97-0, the FY2005 defense authorization bill (S. 2400) on June 23. The Senate began its consideration of the measure on May 17 (see The Source, 6/18/04, 6/4/04, and 5/21/04). The House approved its version of the bill (H.R. 4200) on May 20.

During consideration of the bill on June 22, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, an amendment by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) that would allow the Department of Defense (DoD) to cover abortions in domestic and overseas military facilities in cases of rape or incest for female troops, spouses, and dependents of military service members. Under current law, the DoD covers abortions only in cases in which the life of the pregnant woman is endangered. In cases of rape and incest, women have to prove that they have been the victim of rape or incest. If they can prove this, they may obtain abortion services with their own funds. Servicewomen who are seeking abortion services under other circumstances must pay for those services at a non-military facility.

In a press release announcing adoption of the amendment, Sen. Boxer stated, “Far too many of our brave women serving in the military report being victims of sexual assault. These women put their lives on the line for the country. It is wrong for them to be denied the medical care and support they need. This legislation will provide help for our female troops in cases of such horrific crimes.”

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) offered an amendment based on the text of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act (S. 2056), which would raise the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fine for any incident of indecency from $27,500 to $275,000. Under the amendment, the amount assessed for any continuing violation would not exceed $3 million. The amendment was adopted, 99-1.

Prior to the final vote, the Senate approved the following second-degree amendments by unanimous consent:

• an amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) that would invalidate the 2003 FCC media ownership rule, which increased the national audience reach limitation for a company from 35 percent to 45 percent; and
• an amendment by Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC) based on the text of the Children’s Protection from Violent Programming Act (S. 161), which would require the FCC to report on the effectiveness of measures to require broadcasters to rate and encode programming for V-Chip blocking; direct the FCC to prohibit broadcasts of violent programming during children’s viewing hours if the FCC finds that voluntary electronic programming blocking is ineffective at any time; direct the FCC to create new regulations for violent programs; and direct the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a study on the marketing of violent content to children by the motion picture, music, computer, and video game industries.

On March 9, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved S. 2056 (see The Source, 3/12/04). The House approved its version of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act (H.R. 3717) on March 11.