(CNSNews.com) – The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would set as permanent law the prohibition against taxpayer funding for abortion – except in cases or rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is at risk -- which is usually attached to congressional appropriations through the Hyde Amendment each year.

HR 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” bans federal funding of abortion; disallows tax benefits for paying for an abortion; prohibits taxpayer funding of federal health care services and those in the District of Columbia that include abortion; and directs the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate any violation of the law through the implementation of Obamacare.

The law also protects from employment-discrimination those health care professionals who are morally opposed to promoting or performing abortions...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry gave a speech on the floor of the Senate this morning confirming Senate Democrats will not budge on requiring Americans to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the federal budget.

“I’m not going to be part of that. I won’t do it,” he said about efforts to cut Planned Parenthood funding on the part of House Republicans.

Reid is objecting to a short-term continuing resolution that doesn’t de-fund Planned Parenthood but includes language that would put the ban back in place that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia...

House Republicans have included language in the new one-week Continuing Resolution that would put the ban back in place that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortions in the nation’s capital.

While most of the pro-life attention to the congressional budget battles has focused on the effort to yank taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business, the long-term budget bill the House passed and Senate rejected also contained numerous pro-life riders addressing other instances of abortion funding or using taxpayer dollars to bankroll pro-abortion groups.

When House Republicans put forward HR 1, the continuing resolution bill to fund the federal government for FY2011, they put language in the legislation to restore the ban on taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia that Obama and House Democrats overturned when they controlled the chamber. Since the defeat of HR 1, pro-life organizations have clamored for a restoration of the D.C.

As the House passed a bill to revive and expand a popular school-choice program in Washington, DC, some minority leaders are criticizing President Obama's opposition to the measure, saying his actions have put the model program "on life support."

By a 225-195 margin, members of the U.S. House on Wednesday voted to restore and expand the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers for low-income parents to send their children to the school of their choice. The Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act (H.R. 471) was sponsored by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), a vocal proponent of school choice.

(CNSNews.com) – The annual March for Life rally is scheduled to take place in the nation’s capital on Monday, Jan. 24, bringing thousands of pro-life activists to Washington to commemorate the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Held every year since 1974, the year following the high court’s decision, the march regularly draws upwards of 150,000 activists to Washington to mark the anniversary of the Roe decision and to oppose the continued existence of abortion on demand.

This year’s march will feature Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) as the keynote speaker at its Rose Dinner event that marks the end of a weekend of protests and ceremonies focused on ending abortion...

Leaving taxpayers hanging and next year's spending bills undone, Congress is rushing to return to the campaign trail, pausing just long enough to agree on a stopgap bill to keep the government from shutting down after Thursday.

After an 18-month burst of legislating that included overhauling the nation's health care system, rewriting rules for Wall Street and repeated efforts to boost the economy, lawmakers punted on the final thorny questions of whether to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire and how to cut spending in the next fiscal year.

Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for deadlocking, and about the only thing they settled on was the need to flee Washington, where they've battled relentlessly for months...

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the District of Columbia law allowing same-sex marriages, rejecting an effort by opponents to put the issue before city voters.

In a 5-4 decision, the full court agreed with a D.C. Superior Court ruling and an earlier ruling by the city's Board of Elections and Ethics that said a referendum on same-sex marriage would violate the city's Human Rights Act.

"Because appellants' proposed initiative would authorize, or have the effect of authorizing, discrimination on a basis prohibited by the Human Rights Act, it was not a proper subject of initiative. Therefore, the Board acted lawfully in refusing to accept the initiative on that basis. Accordingly, the judgment of the Superior Court upholding the Board's determination is affirmed," the court said in its 54-page decision...

The first same-sex weddings in the District of Columbia will be performed Tuesday.

The city is now the sixth jurisdiction in the county in which such marriages can be performed -- joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

More than 300 same-sex couples have applied for a license since the application process began Wednesday.

The 13-member D.C. Council voted in December in favor of the Marriage Equality Act....

The District of Columbia on Wednesday began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, following a last-minute U.S. Supreme Court decision not to address the issue.

The District now becomes the sixth jurisdiction in the United States to issue such licenses to same-sex couples -- joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Weddings cannot be performed in Washington until Tuesday because of a mandatory waiting period.

"Our mood is absolute jubilation," Darlene Garner said outside the Moultrie Courthouse, blocks from the Capitol and the White House. She and partner Candy Holmes were among the first in line to apply for a license....

Since Richard Nixon was president, the Conservative Political Action Conference has provided the American Right with an annual occasion for self-evaluation. On Thursday, when some 10,000 activists gather in Washington for this year’s conference, they will find themselves part of a conservative movement significantly different than it was during the Bush administration, or even in 2009.

A jolt of anti-Obama populist energy has upended the movement’s traditional hierarchy, lifting some new or previously low profile groups to unprecedented heights while leaving traditional powers struggling to adapt.

Ascendant are groups that focus on fiscal issues such as reducing government spending and taxation, which last year drove tens of thousands of new conservative activists to the streets and town halls in protest of big spending initiatives backed by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats...