Social conservatives confident views will be in new GOP contract

Social conservatives are confident that their issues will be
included in the anticipated new House GOP Contract with America.

According to key anti-abortion lawmaker Rep. Joseph Pitts
(R-Pa.), GOP leadership gave their reassurances that lighting-rod issues related
to abortion would be addressed in the final, yet-to-be-seen “governing agenda.”

{mosads}Pitts explained that he has been involved in conversations
with GOP leaders writing the new “governing agenda” set for release in the next
week or so.

“There will be some in there, yes. I haven’t seen the
language but have been told that there will be some in there, the social
issues,” Pitts said in an interview with The Hill.

 “I’ve been very
involved and it will be in there. And I’m not saying how it will be in, that’s
not my prerogative. You need to ask them. We’re assured that the issues will be
in there,” the leader on social issues in the House GOP conference explained.

Former National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman
(NRCC) Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), who has been deeply involved in the planning of the new
“governing agenda,” told The Hill that leaders were still “wrestling” out the
matter of social issues.

Cole added that social issues will be included in the final version
of the document, thanks to the “clever” thinking of Chief Deputy Whip Rep.
Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) tasked McCarthy as
chairman of the project “America Speaking Out,” which will culminate in the new
Contract with America-style document.  

“Kevin and [project Vice-Chairman] Peter Roskam (Ill.) have done a brilliant job of this, they’ve done
really well and there was a lot of discussion about this [among deputy whips on
Thursday] but the reality is I think people, broadly, are very satisfied. I
think they are down to the final tweaking,” Cole said in an interview with The
Hill.

For the most part, job creation, spending restraint and
national security topped the list of relatively non-controversial action items
that Republicans would have included in their wishlist of to-do items should
they regain control of Congress in the fall.

Hot-button controversial social issues including
abortion were not included in 1994’s seminal Contract with America.

But social conservatives made a concerted effort to avoid
such a mistake this year and have actively lobbied GOP leaders to include their
issues in any legislative agenda or risk losing their support.

“The way they do it will be things like no funding of
abortions. But it’s laid out – it’s really pro-growth, fiscal reform, repeal
the healthcare, a national security piece and it’s just remarkably balanced and
wherever you’re at, you can be comfortable with,” Cole explained.

Leading anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List was among a
collection of traditional family organizations lobbying GOP leaders to include
social issues such as abortion, the Defense of Marriage Act and religious liberty
in the final product.

Last week, that collection of organizations delivered 20,000
letters to GOP leaders from their activist community demanding that social
issues make it into the new commitment to America.

“From the beginning our goal was to help remind the
leadership that any document ought to include the full legs of the stool. The
three issue sets that really form the base of the Republican Party. To not
include a third of that would be very difficult for a party at a time with
important goals,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser
explained to The Hill.

GOP leaders told advocacy and interest group leaders last
week that the yet-to-be-revealed governing agenda was not a party platform,
“it’s an action item list,” according to a meeting participant.

“There is a difference between a platform and a governing
document – abosolutely. However, issues come up – a governing document for the
Congress ought to reflect, to a large extent, what the platform is because right
out of the box, there are going to be issues that present themselves,”
Dannenfelser said.

The third-ranking House Republican, Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.),
told an auditorium of Values Voter Summit participants Friday that they should demand
no less than that GOP leaders include social issues in the dialogue moving
forward.

“Men and women, we must demand, here and now, that the
leaders of the Republican Party stand for life, traditional marriage and religious
liberty without apology,” the House GOP Conference chairman told the hundreds of
socially conservative voters in attendance. Pence went on to win the straw poll Saturday.

And his words gave Dannenfelser, at least, “certification
that the whole base is included in the document.”