The select panel looking into accusations that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal tissue has hired a pro-life lobbyist, with both sides now having hired lobbyists on the abortion issue.
Mary Harned is on board as an investigative counsel with the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Select Panel to Investigate Handling of Infant Lives. Before her hire by Chair Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), she was a staff counsel for Americans United for Life, where she registered as a federal lobbyist. Last month, the Democrats on the panel, led by Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.), hired former lobbyist and former public policy coordinator at Planned Parenthood to assist in the investigation.
That each side of an investigative panel hired a paid lobbyist to investigate the matter is an extraordinary sign of both the partisanship in Congress and how commonplace the revolving door has become.
Most recently, Harned worked on issues related to H.R. 4698, the Every Child is a Blessing Act of 2014, and S. 167, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
Through its legislative arm, Americans United for Life Action, Americans United for Life has been lobbying the federal government since 2010. The group has advocated in the House on a provision in H.R. 3772, the Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, concerning defunding abortion providers. Though Congress passed the legislation, there were not enough votes to overturn President Obama's veto.
This will not be the first Capitol Hill gig for Harned. She worked under former Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama and her J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law.
