Panel seeks more funding for Labor-HHS programs

With key appropriators making it clear they will seek more money for the bill, the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Tuesday approved a tight fiscal 1999 spending measure that would provide a large increase for the National Institutes of Health.

The bill, approved by a voice vote, does not include a variety of controversial legislative provisions contained in the House Labor-HHS bill, although some Senators made it clear the provisions could be added when the full committee marks up the bill Thursday or when it gets to the floor. The $82.7 billion bill is about $270 million below an FY98 freeze, a funding level Senators said is inadequate.

"There's no question that we will have to find more money for this bill," Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said. "We're going to keep working on that."

While the appropriators said they were planning to work with Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., on that effort, a Budget Committee staff memo to Domenici makes it clear there is not much room for increases. Any additional funds would come from re-scoring the cost of certain programs, the memo from Senate Budget Committee Staff Director William Hoagland stated. "We have found very few if any programs to recommend scoring adjustments to the CBO outlay estimates," the memo said.

The memo also noted that technical re-scoring of special education funds could result in the availability of an additional $215 million in the Labor-HHS bill.

In addition, the memo argued that the Senate would be unable to fund programs in the Labor-HHS bill at the level requested by President Clinton because the administration relied on revenue from a tobacco bill, which has not passed.

"About $3.6 billion of the proposed tobacco receipts proposed by the president were to be allocated to the appropriations process to offset spending beyond the statutory caps set last year," Hoagland wrote.

Of that total, $2.6 billion in budget authority and $971 million in outlays would have gone to the Labor-HHS bill.

"Expending $971 million more for education programs in 1999, resulting from tobacco receipts would represent all of 0.2 percent of an increase," he wrote.

"Republicans need not be defensive of education and health care funding within the budget caps," he added, saying the Senate bill provides increases for major education and health programs.

As approved by the subcommittee, the Senate bill would provide $1.1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and $817 million for summer jobs programs, two programs the House bill currently does not fund.

The bill calls for a $2 billion boost for the NIH, a $300.8 million increase for Title I compensatory education grants, a $499 million increase for special education grants and $151 million for a new school violence initiative.

At the same time, the bill would cut school-to-work efforts by $150 million and social service block grants by $390 million.

Unlike the House bill, the Senate legislation does not require parental notification for teens receiving contraceptives at federally financed family planning agencies, any restrictions on federal funds for Viagra or a provision expanding the use of federal funds for education block grants.

Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said he plans to offer on the floor a modified version of his amendment that would combine funding for federal education into a block grant.

Gorton said Congress has failed to make changes in education laws that would allow school districts to more effectively spend money.

Stevens said appropriators might also attempt to begin earmarking NIH funds for specific programs, noting his unhappiness with the way the NIH has spent money on prostate cancer.

"We're going to change our policy regarding earmarking, at least for prostate cancer," said Stevens, a prostate cancer survivor.