Subpanel passes Labor-HHS spending bill exceeding White House request

The House Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee approved a $141.9 billion measure Wednesday that is a slight increase over last year and $4.1 billion above the White House request.

National Institutes of Health funds would be frozen at $28.3 billion, and low-income energy subsidies are cut by one third, to $2 billion, from fiscal 2006. GOP appropriators found room to increase maximum Pell Grants by $100 to $4,150, the largest increase in five years, and more money is provided for community health centers, immunizations for needy children and special education state grants than in fiscal 2006.

Total discretionary funds are still $3.1 billion shy of what House Republican leaders promised moderates would come out of final House-Senate conference negotiations. But those talks will probably not occur until after the November elections.

The always testy debate over education, health and workforce investment funding became heated as Democrats accused Republicans of sabotaging social programs to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. "This is not a surprise. This is what you wanted to do," said Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who said the national debt has skyrocketed despite GOP efforts to "starve" government services.

The usually reserved Military Quality of Life Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman James Walsh, R-N.Y., snapped that it was "really ironic" that Democrats were accusing Republicans of running up the deficit while urging more spending. "You can't have it both ways," he said.

Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., responded that Democrats were seeking small sums compared to $250 billion in tax cuts this year, and that his amendments targeted tax cuts for individuals making more than $1 million annually.

"Those are small businesses," shot back Rep. Anne Northup, R-Ky. Finally, the mild-mannered Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, seeking to return the focus to the contents of the bill, quieted down the room. "This is not the Ways and Means Committee," he said.

The underlying bill fully funds President Bush's signature math and science education initiatives but terminates another 56 federal programs, largely education-related, saving $1.66 billion. The bill contains $1 billion in members' home-state earmarks -- which the committee pointed out was down from recent years and represents less than 1 percent of total discretionary spending in the bill.

Including mandatory programs, the bill totals nearly $600 billion, or roughly 22 percent of the overall fiscal 2007 federal budget.