House passes Labor-HHS spending measure
The bill is the 11th of 12 annual appropriations bills that Congress has passed this year.
The House Friday afternoon approved the $160.7 billion fiscal 2010 Labor-HHS Appropriations bill, which spends about $5.6 billion more than the $155 billion provided in fiscal 2009.
"This country has pushed a lot of money -- government money, taxpayer money -- into the financial sector of the economy and Wall Street the last few months in order to try to stabilize the economy," said Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., who chairs the full committee. "This is the bill that tries to deal with the problems of everybody else in this society."
The House passed the bill, 264-153, after defeating three Republican amendments, including a proposal seeking to bar funds from being used for needle exchange programs, which failed, 218-211. An amendment offered by House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana seeking to cut funding for Planned Parenthood also was defeated, 247-183.
The bill is the 11th of 12 annual spending bills, and Friday's action brings Obey and Democratic leaders within reach of their goal of passing all 12 measures by August.
Republicans have criticized Democrats for limiting the number of amendments that could be offered to appropriations bills in order to meet the schedule -- a move they contend is not the typical practice and has squelched their minority rights.
Obey "has set an arbitrary timeline, which has forced this Congress ... to limit every Republican and Democrats' chances to offer an amendment on the floor," said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas.
Appropriations Committee ranking member Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said, "The majority leadership is taking shortcuts to pass these bills, an achievement they could not attain within the rules."
Republicans said they sought to offer several amendments, such as a proposal barring Congress from setting up a government-run alternative to private insurance when revamping health care. But Obey said many of the Republican amendments were not allowed because of jurisdictional issues.
"I did not know the Appropriations Committee was so talented that in addition to handling budget matters it is also supposed to interfere with judgments about healthcare reform," Obey facetiously said.
Republicans also took aim at the spending in the bill, which they argued should be less, given that many of the affected agencies and programs were boosted in February when Congress passed the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
"The true cost has to include the $126 billion allocated to those agencies in the stimulus act," said Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. "So in reality these agencies have grown by $135.3 billion, or a 93 percent increase over two years."
Obey said the bill is fiscally responsible and is $52 million less than President Obama's discretionary request.