Taking a closer look at Janelle Stelson & Scott Perry's policies

On Saturday, the US House approved a $95 billion foreign aid package, including significant aid to both Israel and Ukraine during their respective wars against Hamas and Russia.

A number of conservative Republicans were upset with both the process of the vote, and the content of the bills. 21 Republicans voted against the more than $26 billion package to Israel, and 112 voted against the more than $60 billion package to Ukraine, both of which passed.

Rep. Perry was one of the votes against both aid packages. The bills were put forward by Speaker Mike Johnson in a way which combined the aid bills for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan into a single measure to send to the Senate, a tactic which Perry opposed.

"If you vote for one portion of it, you're essentially approving all of it," Perry said. "I like single subject bills, so I can be counted, I can be evaluated and be accountable for each separate one. So that wasn't the case there on the individual bills."

On the package to Israel, the six-term incumbent Perry says his vote against the package was due to the more than $9 billion  earmarked in humanitarian aid for Gaza. The Israeli government has claimed that Palestinian militant group Hamas has been looting and stealing aid intended for Gaza's civilians.

"I've always been a supporter," Perry explained, speaking on Israel. "I voted for aid for Israel and support for Israel every single time. However, I'm going to make a distinction when you're, in the same bill, voting for Hamas. I'm not interested in voting to help Hamas. I don't think it's great to be on both sides of the war."

Stelson, a former WGAL News anchor, says Perry's vote went against every other Republican in the Pennsylvania delegation.

"Scott Perry is so extreme that he voted against every other Republican in Pennsylvania's congressional delegation," Stelson said. "They all voted for this bill. He did not."

Stelson says that while she has not felt good about the situation in Gaza since the October 7 terror attack on Israel carried out by Hamas, she supports both aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

"In terms of democracy, they are our most staunch ally in the Middle East," Stelson said. "And this is a relationship that needs to be preserved. It doesn't matter who is president in either country. We need to stand up for our allies, and our allies need to stand up for us."

On the aid package to Ukraine, Perry says he was uncomfortable sending money to the country without an imminent victory in sight in its war with Russia.

"Nobody agrees with what Russia has done," Perry said. "But at this point, we've spent $113 billion there. We don't know where it's headed. We've asked the President, what is the plan? What is the goal? What is the outcome going to be?"

Stelson says that a vote against aid to Ukraine is a vote to assist Vladamir Putin's wider aspirations.

"If he's successful in Ukraine, how much further will he take it?," Stelson said. "Will he then start eking into our NATO allies. We don't know what's in his mind. But when I see Scott Perry vote against Ukraine and vote for Russia, that's a real problem for me."

Nearly two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, the intensity of the debate over abortion and women’s rights has only grown.

Recent decisions by the Arizona Supreme Court, which reinstated a pre-Civil War era total abortion ban, along with the Alabama Supreme Court's decision to ban in vitro fertilization, has sparked debate over the lengths of laws protecting unborn fetuses as well as the role of the federal government on regulating abortion.

Former president Donald Trump came out earlier this month against a federal abortion ban, and said the issue should be left up to the states.

Rep. Perry told FOX43 that he agrees with the position, and says that state control of abortion rights was the intent of the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court decision which overturned Roe v Wade.

“I think it's the appropriate one,” Perry said on Trump’s position. “Let's honor the court's decision, and then have the states figure that out so that we have those decisions being made locally where they should be.”

Stelson, a former WGAL News anchor, says that Perry has attempted to ban abortion nationwide and put IVF at risk through his co-sponsorship of the Life at Conception Act last year.

The Act, if passed, would “implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and preborn human person,” giving unborn fetuses equal protection under the law pursuant to the 14th Amendment.

“That would absolutely ban abortion nationwide with no exceptions: rape, incest, the health of the mother, the life of a mother,” Stelson said. “He wants a total ban on abortions, and he wants the same on IVF. And I could not be more opposite.”

The Perry campaign is pushing back on Stelson’s claims, reiterating the six-term incumbent’s stated position on the issue.

“Congressman Perry has made clear - time and again - that he supports access to IVF treatments because it provides the opportunity for the blessing of children to loving families who have difficulty conceiving,” said a campaign spokesperson in a statement. “Ms. Stelson’s attempt to divert the conversation for her political gain with her misleading, [nonfactual], and desperate political attacks on an issue so personal to so many south-central Pennsylvania families is just plain sad.”

Perry has repeatedly stated his support for IVF, and says that he maintains his personal pro-life stance while continuing to leave the issue to the states.

“I still believe in the sanctity of life,” Perry said. “I also make exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. I think when it comes to taxpayer dollars at the federal level, taxpayers shouldn't be forced to violate their strongly held beliefs and pay for those things.”

The issue of the state of the southern border has spread beyond the border states, with The United States Customs and Border Protection reporting more than 300,000 encounters with both asylum seekers and those looking to cross illegally in March, marking an all-time record for a month.

A bipartisan group of senators, led in part by Oklahoma Republican James Lankford and Arizona Independent Kyrsten Sinema, unveiled a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year. 

The bill included provisions such as ending the policy of “catch and release” for migrants, hiring more border patrol officers and giving the Department of Homeland Security the power to decide whether to close the border when the number of law enforcement encounters average 4,000 over one week, with the border automatically closing at 5,000.

Opposition from former president Donald Trump, as well as from House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, helped lead to the bill’s defeat in the Senate.

Rep. Scott Perry was among the Republicans who opposed the bill, saying that any threshold of law enforcement encounters to secure the border is essentially an invitation to cross.

“It didn't do anything to secure the border,” the six-term incumbent Perry said. “That's why they left, and that's why Democrats support that bill. It actually enshrined in law letting thousands of people daily into the country illegally. How is that solving the problem?”

Stelson, a former WGAL News anchor, says Republicans like Perry have turned border security into a partisan issue, and that the compromise should have passed in order to make some progress at the border.

“This is not a partisan issue to me,” Stelson said. “I think we need to reach across the aisle and accomplish one of our biggest goals, which is securing the border. This is a big problem. It's been a problem for a long time. Everybody has been botching it. So let's work together and get it solved.”

With concerns growing about drug trafficking and the lack of legal asylum seekers being processed, Stelson says more compromise is needed to solve the problem, while Perry says the Democrats need to step up in order to do so.

“Let's not take a partisan approach and say, ‘Well, that'd be good for the dems, or that'd be good for the Republicans,’” Stelson said. “That's not okay. We're Americans above being a Democrat or Republican.”

“We need the left and the Democrats to come on seriously about securing the border and stopping the fentanyl, stopping the crime rates from rising and stopping the American citizens from having to pay for these things for which they can't afford and increasing our national debt,” Perry said.

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