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Republican Senator Ted Cruz, also a candidate [for the Republican presidential nomination], has led a charge to kill federal funding for Planned Parenthood after secretly taped videos showed technicians for the women's health organization gathering fetal tissue from abortions. Cruz and other conservatives have tried to use must-pass spending bills, like the one coming due Oct. 1, as vehicles to kill Obama's healthcare law and immigration policies. The strategy has failed but has forced temporary agency shutdowns. (8/27)

Backers of a plan to ease Medicaid restrictions on treating children with complex medical needs across state lines are trying to make it a bipartisan rallying point after the proposal was dropped from the House-passed “21st Century Cures” bill. Republican sponsor Joe L. Barton of Texas is pressing for a fall hearing on a measure (HR 546) addressing the effects of the program's state-specific coverage requirements and said it could pass as stand-alone legislation. The Senate companion bill is backed by Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa. (Zanona, 8/26)

A group of conservative luminaries is distributing a "Memo for the Movement" urging colleagues to oppose House and Senate legislation that would make it more difficult for patent holders to sue others for infringement. The memorandum, which began circulating last Friday, is signed by former Reagan administration Attorney General Edwin Meese III, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II and former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, among others. (Zeller, 8/26)

Despite deep differences on some social issues such as abortion, Obama and the pope are expected to focus on areas of agreement. The White House said economic opportunity, immigration and refugees, and protection of religious minorities were high on the agenda. ... When he visited Francis early last year, Obama contradicted the official Vatican account of their meeting by saying they hadn't discussed social issues in any detail. Papal aides insisted the two leaders indeed discussed religious freedom, life and conscientious objection - buzzwords for abortion, birth control and parts of Obama's health care law. (8/26)