NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON: House extends pay freeze

House lawmakers voted Wednesday night to freeze their pay and the salaries of congressional staffers and civilian federal employees, scoring a symbolic victory for Republicans who have targeted government compensation as an example of excessive federal spending. On a vote of 309-117, GOP supporters scored the two-thirds majority needed to approve the measure under a suspension of normal procedural roles. The bill would extend the two-year freeze on federal cost-of-living raises for another year starting next January. The bill would need Senate approval before becoming law.

INDIANA: Guv signs right-to-work law

For the first time, supporters of right-to-work laws can claim victory in the industrialized Midwest. Gov. Mitch Daniels signed legislation Wednesday making it illegal to require nonunion workers to pay union dues. Right-to-work laws have taken on oversized symbolic importance, outweighing the actual cost to unions or the real benefits to employers. Unions loathe the laws because they can make organizing more difficult and, they insist, lead to lower wages and less generous benefits. Some governors think a right-to-work law is the best proxy for how business-friendly their state is. Twenty-three states, mostly in the South and Southwest, have such laws. Lawmakers in Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, and other states may try to follow. Republican U.S. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina is pushing for a national right-to-work law.

NATIONWIDE: Funds for Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood said Wednesday it had received more than $400,000 from 6,000 donors in the 24 hours after news broke that its affiliates would be losing grants for breast screenings from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer foundation. Komen incurred heated criticism from some members of Congress, liberal advocacy groups and some newspaper editorial writers. It was applauded by conservative religious and anti-abortion groups that abhor Planned Parenthood, the leading U.S. abortion provider. Planned Parenthood says the funding cutoff was a result of Komen succumbing to pressure from anti-abortion activists. Komen denied that politics played a role.