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Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Update on Budget Resolution Amendments
As of 2:00 PM today the Senate had yet to vote on the Harkin-Specter amendment, which would provide an additional $7 billion over the President’s budget request — allowing Congress to fund the FY07 Labor-HHS bill at the level enacted two years ago, in FY05. A one-pager on the amendment, made available by Senator Harkin's office, is available here.Among many points made, the one-pager says:
The Senate budget resolution says it has more funding for health and education than the President’s budget does. Yet it includes the same total amount for discretionary spending. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the alleged health and education increases will ever materialize in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The only way to ensure more funding for Labor-HHS programs is to add money to the total spending level.
After completing 50 hours of debate on the budget resolution bill, the Senate started considering amendments yesterday. So far struck down they have struck down amendments offered by Sens. Kennedy (D-MA), Murray (D-WA), Conrad (D-ND), Bingaman (D-NM), and Akaka (D-HI). They unanimously adopted an amendment offered by Sen. Burns (R-MT) to provide increased funding for veterans health programs, and to negate the need for enrollment fees and increase in pharmacy co-payments.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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