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Thursday, December 15, 2005
House Passes Labor/HHS Bill; ANWR Attached To Defense Bill
The House passed a $602 billion Labor/HHS Appropriations bill yesterday by a close vote of 215-213, nearly one month after twenty-two Republicans surprisingly voted with Democrats to defeat the initial bill that came out of conference. In the vote, all Democrats and only 12 Republicans voted against the bill, which provides $142.5 billion in discretionary funding (the remainder is automatic spending on entitlement programs). This discretionary amount is 0.1 percent - or $163 million - less than what was appropriated for FY 2005, and $785 million more than President Bush’s budget request.
In order to pick up support for the bill, appropriators increased rural health spending by $90 million and, in a nod to Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), struck a provision barring Medicare coverage of erectile dysfunction drugs. The overall cost of the bill did not change, however, because money added was offset by a $120 million reduction to an HHS vaccine fund.
The Senate will most likely clear the measure later today, even though there is widespread bipartisan dissatisfaction with this bill, which is the most austere Labor/HHS bill seen in decades. Overall, the bill cuts nearly $1.5 billion from the FY05 levels; however, if a 1 percent across-the-board cut is implemented later this week (as is being pushed by GOP leaders like Dennis Hastert (R-IL), total cuts would approach $3 billion.
Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said that even though the measure provides insufficient funding for major health and school programs, he expects it to pass.
He said, "I will vote for it if my vote is needed to pass, otherwise I will vote against. There is not enough money in it."
In other appropriations news, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) - the Senate's biggest proponent of opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling - has attached the ANWR provision to the Defense appropriations bill. The defense bill also includes funding for hurricane disaster relief, and Stevens, who is the chair of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee said, "It’s going to be awfully hard to vote against Katrina [disaster assistance]. . . . If it’s in there, then maybe those disaster people — area people — will vote with me on ANWR." This move will also likely clear the way for Congress to pass a roughly $42 billion deficit reduction reconciliation bill that was being held up partially over ANWR language.
Stevens has had some difficulty amassing support for ANWR, particularly from House Republicans, a number of whom refused to vote for their version of the budget reconciliation bill until the leadership removed ANWR language from the measure.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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