Negotiators make second attempt on Labor-HHS spending measure

Conferees approved the fiscal 2006 Labor-HHS appropriations conference report Monday -- for a second time this year -- with Republicans hoping that moving around $180 million within the massive bill will win them the GOP votes that led to the bill's failure on the House floor last month.

Appropriators provided $90 million more for rural health programs than they did on the last iteration of the Labor-HHS bill, including $9 million for a rural health research center within the HHS Department.

Last month, 22 Republicans joined all House Democrats to defeat the Labor-HHS bill, and a handful of those Republicans cited a lack of funding for rural healthcare initiatives as their reason for voting against the bill.

As approved Monday, conferees included an extra $90 million to retain government coverage of erectile dysfunction drugs, in a bow to House Ways and Means Chairman William Thomas, R-Calif.

Thomas voted against the previous bill that cut payments for drugs like Viagra, citing concern that the government might be subject to contract-related lawsuits.

To come up with the $180 million, the new version of the bill cuts spending for flu preparedness by $120 million and implementation of the new Medicare prescription drug bill by $60 million.

Appropriators expect soon to take up separate legislation providing funding for a potential outbreak of avian flu, where they expect to make up for the money they cut in the Labor-HHS bill.

The conference agreement calls for $142.5 billion for fiscal 2006, compared with $143.5 billion during fiscal 2005.

Democrats objected to the new conference report, as they did the last one, saying it provides insufficient funds for education, health care and jobs programs.

"This is Scrooge-onomics," House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., said.

House conferees defeated two Democratic amendments that would have added an extra $2 billion for a low-income heating program and to delay the sign-up deadline for the new Medicare drug benefit.

An appropriations spokesman said the bill might come to the House floor as early as Wednesday, and that Republicans were closing in on the votes needed to secure passage. "We're making pretty good progress," he said.

Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, warned members that if Congress does not adopt the bill, the programs under it would be funded under a year-long continuing resolution that would make funding levels even lower than current ones. "The alternative is a full year CR," he said.

On the Senate side, the bill is likely to pass again, as it did in October.