The ERLC sent a letter to U.S. House and Senate Appropriations leadership as they finalize Fiscal Year 2026 government funding bills. The letter urges Congress to:
- preserve long-standing pro-life protections like the Hyde Amendment,
- oppose taxpayer funding for abortion and harmful practices such as certain Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and gender transition procedures, and
- strengthen conscience protections.
A country’s spending shows what it values. Our nation’s federal dollars should be allocated in a way that affirms the value of life, safeguards the family, protects religious liberty, and honors the dignity of all humans, who are made in the image of God.
As Congress works to finalize federal spending legislation in advance of Jan. 30, the ERLC advocates for the retention of provisions concerning life, religious liberty, marriage & family, and human dignity. Current provisions and spending levels—set by the Biden administration—are due for moral and fiscal examination, meaning that it is important that lawmakers prioritize a traditional appropriations process.
“Our nation’s values are most clearly displayed through our allocation of resources.”
How is the ERLC advocating for Southern Baptists in the 2026 government funding bills?
As the ERLC represents the interests of Southern Baptists in these negotiations, this comprehensive letter follows months of advocacy to members of Congress and their staff. Now, as Members and their staff continue to participate in the annual appropriations process, this letter summarizes areas of concern and support for lawmakers and clearly communicates policy priorities. In this letter, the ERLC shares:
“Our nation’s values are most clearly displayed through our allocation of resources. This remains true for resources secured through annual appropriations spending. It is our desire for those resources to be used in a way that promotes life, religious liberty, and the flourishing of all our neighbors.”
ERLC top areas of support and concern in FY26 Appropriations
Below is a list of priority items for each subcommittee bill.
Agriculture
- SUPPORT: Prohibits the use of embryos in research (Sec. 734) (Minibus)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits the use of funds to be used to establish new or maintain computer networks unless blocking pornography (Sec. 713) (Minibus)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funding from being used to take discriminatory action against a person due to speech or acts related to religious beliefs surrounding the definition of marriage between one man and one woman (Sec. 780) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Expresses concern regarding marijuana rescheduling (Bill Report, Page 84) (House only)
Commerce, Justice, and Science
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funding to pay for, facilitate, perform, or require to perform an abortion (Sec. 202, Sec. 203) (Both House and Senate)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funds from being used to investigate or prosecute religious institutions on the basis of their religious beliefs (Sec. 220) (Both House and Senate)
- SUPPORT: Prevents governments from being sued over single-sex sports, facilities, or limiting transgender medical procedures (Sec. 576) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prevents funds in this bill from being used to reschedule marijuana (Sec. 607) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funds used for gender transition procedures and treatments (Sec. 610) (House only)
Department of Defense (War)
- SUPPORT: Removes the time limit on cryopreservation of embryos under DoD’s IVF policy (Sec. 8122) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits abortion-related travel and lodging expenses, prohibiting the use of funds for paid leave or travel expenses related to obtaining an abortion (Sec. 8142) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funds being used for “gender-affirming” care (Sec. 8145) or for gender transition procedures for minors covered under certain military health plans (Sec 8138) (House only)
Energy and Water
Senate bill text not yet available
- SUPPORT: Blocks the use of funds to maintain or establish computer networks unless the network blocks the viewing, downloading, exchanging of pornography (Sec. 503) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funding from being used to take discriminatory action against a person due to speech or acts related to religious beliefs surrounding the definition of marriage between one man and one woman (Sec. 506) (House only)
Financial Services and General Government
Senate bill text not yet available
- SUPPORT: Repeal of DC Death with Dignity Act (Sec. 819) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Pro-life funding restrictions and instructions for the DC government (Sec. 726, Sec. 808, Sec. 809, Sec 820) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits coverage of “gender-affirming” care under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program (Sec. 761) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits use of funds to hire, promote, recruit, or retain anyone who has been convicted of a child pornography charge (Sec. 755) (House only)
Homeland Security
Senate bill text not yet available
- SUPPORT: Prohibit ICE funds for abortion-related travel and lodging (Sec. 222) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits the use of ICE funds for “gender-affirming care” for any person in ICE custody (Sec. 223) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Report language urging the Department to exhaust all options before pursuing immigration enforcement actions at sensitive locations like houses of worship (Amendment, Bill Report) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Report language directing DHS to release a report on combatting antisemitism and the implementation of EO 14188 (Report) (House only)
Interior and Environment
- SUPPORT: Blocks the use of funds to maintain or establish computer networks unless the network blocks the viewing, downloading, exchanging of pornography (Sec. 416) (Both House and Senate)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funding from being used to take discriminatory action against a person due to speech or acts related to religious beliefs surrounding the definition of marriage between one man and one woman. (Sec. 442) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funding for the promotion of Critical Race Theory (Sec. 441) (House only)
- CONCERN: Prohibitions on coverage of “gender affirming” care in the Indian Health Service not included (Included in FY2025 House bill)
Labor, HHS, and Education
- SUPPORT: Maintained key pro-life riders (Both House and Senate)
- SUPPORT: Pro-life, pro-family family planning provisions
- Greenwood Amendment (Family Planning) (Senate only) (CONCERN: Not included in House)
- Specter Amendment (General Departmental Management) (Both House and Senate)
- Istook Amendment: Title X protections (Sec. 208) (Both House and Senate)
- Castle Amendment (Sec. 207) (Both House and Senate)
- Sexual Risk Avoidance Education, Competitive Grant Program – funding for competitive grants for sexual risk avoidance (defined as voluntarily refraining from non-marital sexual activity) (Both House and Senate)
- Prohibits funding to “prohibited entities,” which provide abortion services (Sec 238) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funds for gender-affirming care (Sec. 244) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits EO 14076, EO 14079, EO 13988 from taking effect (Sec. 241 and Sec. 243) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits the use of federal funding for hospitals or other entities that offer post-graduate physician or health training if they provide training in the performance, assistance, or referral for abortions if they require such training or discriminate against students that do not wish to receive such training (Sec. 237) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits the use of funding to conduct or support research using human fetal tissue if such tissue is obtained via an induced abortion (Sec. 236) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Protections for unaccompanied minors (Sec. 228, Sec. 231, Sec. 254 in House bill only, Sec. 231 in Senate bill only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funds given under the Higher Education Act from going to schools that discriminate against religious student groups by denying them access to facilities otherwise available to them. (Sec. 313) (House only)
Legislative Branch
- SUPPORT: Blocks the use of funds to maintain or establish computer networks unless the network blocks the viewing, downloading, exchanging of pornography (Sec. 209) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Report language on creating a prayer space for Senate staff and interns (Senate Report) (Senate only)
Military Construction and Veterans’ Affairs
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funding for abortion, abortion counseling, elective abortions, defunding the Biden administration’s interim final rule on abortion (Sec. 255) (House only)
- CONCERN: The Murray Amendment, on the whole: Allows the Department of Veterans Affairs to use its medical funds for assisted reproductive technologies, including in-vitro fertilization (IVF), for veterans who are rendered infertile by service-connected injuries. (Sec. 233) (Minibus) We are grateful for the following limited pro-life concessions included within the Murray Amendment:
- (1) allow adoption reimbursement for such veterans;
- (2) incorporate the Dickey-Wicker Amendment by cross-reference, which bars funds for creating or destroying an embryo in a research context; and
- (3) bar any time limitations on Federal cost-sharing for the freezing and storage of human embryos.
- 4) includes adoption reimbursement
- CONCERN: Provides funding for gender-specific care with potential to paying for and providing for abortion, including leave and travel related to obtaining the abortion (Sec. 250) (Minibus)
State and Foreign Operations
Senate bill text not yet available
- SUPPORT: All longstanding pro-life riders (House only)
- Helms Amendment (Sec 7018)
- Young Amendment (Peace Corps)
- Biden Amendment (Sec 7018)
- Siljander Amendment (under Global Health Programs)
- Kamp-Kasten Amendment (under Global Health Programs)
- Livingston-Obey Amendment (under Global Health Programs)
- (NEW): No funding for United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), or any NGO that makes a subaward with global health assistance funds to promote or perform abortion (Sec. 7057)
- CONCERN: Lautenberg Amendment not included (House only)
- SUPPORT: Prohibits any use of federal dollars that would violate EO 14187, including directly funding or transferring money to an organization that funds, counsels for, promotes, conducts, or subsidizes “gender affirming” care. (Sec. 7067(f)) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Funding for international anti-human trafficking efforts (Sec. 7060(d)), and to prevent violence against women and girls, including child marriage, rape, and female genital cutting and mutilation (Sec. 7059(d)) (House only)
- SUPPORT: International Religious Freedom Office fully funded at $50M (Sec. 7033) (House only)
Transportation, Housing, and Rural Development
- SUPPORT: Prohibits funding from being used to take discriminatory action against a person due to speech or acts related to religious beliefs surrounding the definition of marriage between one man and one woman. (Sec. 422) (House only)
- SUPPORT: Blocks the use of funds to maintain or establish computer networks unless the network blocks the viewing, downloading, exchanging of pornography (Sec. 414) (House and Senate)
- SUPPORT: No funds made available may be used in contravention of EO 14168 (Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government) or EO 14173 (Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity) (Sec. 425) (House only)
