BACKGROUND: HR 2126 is one of 13 appropriations bills that Congress must pass and the President must sign into law to make up the budget that funds the operation of government agencies. This bill appropriates $243 billion for the Defense Department, $7 billion more than the President and the Pentagon had requested. But the focus of debate came to be a provision banning abortions in U.S. military hospitals overseas.

STATUS: The bill was passed by both the House and Senate, and emerged from a House-Senate conference in what appeared to be its final form. But the House rejected the conference report on Sept. 29, 151-267. The Senate has not voted on the report.

KEY PLAYERS: Republican Reps. Christopher H. Smith (NJ), Henry J. Hyde (IL) and Robert K. Dornan (CA), candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, are uncompromising pro-lifers and led the fight to defeat the bill.

PRO: Congress has a responsibility to send a budget to the President in a timely manner. A major appropriations bill is not the place for a single-issue battle.

"I am a one hundred percent pro lifer. If you vote against [this bill], you're voting against it in derogation of your responsibility. I say that you're wrong." -- Rep. Robert Livingston (R-LA)

CON: A strange coalition of opponents brought this bill down. Democrats objected that too much money was being allocated to the Pentagon at a time when the U.S. is not particularly threatened and when other budget resources are painfully scarce. But a group of Republicans who believe that abortion is immoral voted against the bill when the proposal on abortions in U.S. military hospitals was dropped. These members believe so strongly that aborting a fetus is akin to murder that they refuse to allow such a procedure on government property.

"Saint Peter, on my judgment day, will not ask me about the B-2 bomber or my defense votes. He will ask about my votes on human life." -- Rep. Bob Dornan (R-CA)

WHAT'S NEXT: The House and Senate must decide whether to return the bill to conference. The President has also threatened to veto the bill due to its extra allocation.

INSIDE SCOOP: This unexpected and unusual rejection of a major spending bill underscored a new trend in the House of Representatives: newer members -- particularly freshmen from the class of 1994 -- rebuffing a House leadership that they believe is not committed enough to their idea of the true conservative mandate of the election. The freshman, who have organized into informal groups to make strategy, now closely monitor the leadership and its activity to ensure that compromises with moderates and Democrats are kept to a minimum.