UPDATE (5:45pm)

As conferees prepare to file the conference report for the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee chairman (Sen. Specter) announced that the bill will exclude all earmarks.  The conference report could be filed as early as this evening.

According to appropriators, the problem giving rise to the exclusion of earmarks is twofold: 

(1) The FY 2006 allocation for the Labor-HHS Subcommittee [302(b) allocation] does not allow the full funding of priority programs.  As Senator Specter put it, “The allocation for the Subcommittee was cut by 1% which amounted to $1.4 billion. When inflation is factored in, the real reduction was approximately $5 billion.”

(2) The Subcommittee has been forced to absorb $1.048 billion in new discretionary spending from the prescription drug legislation, and approximately $300 million in LIHEAP spending that was declared emergency [i.e., not subject to the 302(b) cap] last year but is being denied emergency status this year.

Had these sums “been spent on earmarks,” Senator Specter said in a press release, ”we would have sustained intolerable cuts in programs such as LIHEAP, CDC, community health centers, community services block grant, health professionals including nursing and Head Start.  With inflation considered, program cuts will occur in these and other programs such as NIH, Title I and special education even without the earmarks.”

Senator Specter’s press release is attached.  We have also attached a House Democratic press release summarizing the conference report and a copy of that report can be found under "Staff Summary Of Preliminary Conference Agreement, FY 2006 Labor-HHS Appropriations".

Press Release from the Office of Sen. Arlen Spector         

For Immediate Release                                                                                                             November 16, 2005

Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, made the following comments today on the LHHS Appropriations bill:

"I write to explain the background and reasons for the exclusion of earmarks in this year's Appropriation Bill for Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.

"The allocation for the Subcommittee was cut by 1% which amounted to $1.4 billion.  When inflation is factored in, the real reduction was approximately $5 billion.

"Had the $1 billion been spent on earmarks, we would have sustained intolerable cuts in programs such as LIHEAP, CDC, community health centers, community services block grant, health professionals including nursing and Head Start.  With inflation considered, program cuts will occur in these and other programs such as NIH, Title I and special education even without the earmarks.

"I sought to avoid cutting earmarks by pressing the House to agree to a $2.1 billion emergency designation for LIHEAP.  We all know that is truly an emergency because of the increased heating costs occasioned by Hurricane Katrina.  I thought with the alternative of such an emergency declaration for such a worthy cause, instead of cutting popular earmarks, the House would agree.  Notwithstanding my persistent efforts with the House leadership, they refused to budge.

"The removal of the earmarks has focused the attention of the members of both bodies about the blatant inadequacy of the allocation for this Subcommittee which funds the major capital assets for our nation for health, education and worker training.  I believe this move is realistically calculated to have an impact on our next year's allocation.

"In essence, when looking at programs like LIHEAP where so many elderly and poverty-level families will have the alternatives of either "heating or eating" and the cuts in other key programs, that it would be inappropriate, really unconscionable, to keep the earmarks this year.

I know that a great many people are disappointed and that a great many important projects will have to be deferred for a year.  Among many tough choices in this job, this is the toughest one I have made in my tenure in the Senate."

House Committee On Appropriations, Democratic Staff

David R. Obey (WI-07), Ranking Member

A Matter of Priorities: The Labor-HHS-Education Conference Report

Today, the House and Senate are putting finishing touches on the FY 2006 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Conference Report.

This bill is the most recent evidence that working and middle class Americans are paying the price for Republican tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Overall, the conference report cuts labor, education, health care, and human services by $1.5 billion from last year. 

·        The Department of Education is cut by $59.1 million, No Child Left Behind Programs are cut by $784 million, there are cuts to Even Start literacy services, Safe and Drug Free Schools, and Technology Grants, and the maximum Pell Grant is frozen for the fourth year in a row even as college costs are skyrocketing 

·        The Department of Labor is cut by $430 million, there are deep cuts to job training and job placement programs, funding is slashed for the International Labor Affairs Board to fight child labor and protect worker rights and wages around the world, and grants for delivering employment services to persons with disabilities are eliminated.

·        The Department of Health and Human Services is cut by $976 million including a $249 million cut to the Center for Disease Control, cuts to Head Start, and deep cuts to programs to improve healthcare access such as Rural Health Outreach grants, programs to train Health Professionals, Maternal and Child Health Block Grants, and the Healthy Communities Access Program is eliminated altogether.

·        The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is frozen at last year's level, even though families in some communities are expected to pay 46 percent more for natural gas and 28 percent more for home heating oil this winter.

Meanwhile, Republicans will spend $11 billion on a capital gains and dividend income tax cut that will provide 53 percent of its benefit to people making more than $1 million.

Overall, Republicans spend more on tax cuts in their reconciliation bill alone ($70 billion) than on both the Department of Education and the Department of Labor ($68 billion) for an entire year.

Together, America can do better to help all Americans, not just the wealthy few.

Attached is an in-depth review of Republican efforts to cut and shortchange efforts to improve education, expand healthcare access and invest in workers.  

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