Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006--Conference Report

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - December 15, 2005)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, to keep America strong, we need to keep our families and communities strong. That is why I am very concerned about the fiscal year 2006 Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill.

The Senate is scheduled to take up the final conference agreement on this bill, and it is bad news for the American people. This bill is filled with the wrong priorities for our country.

If we pass this bill as a result, it will tear apart what is left of America's health care safety net and provide fewer investments in education and workforce training.

Instead of investing here at home--in our people, our children, and our communities--this bill will move us in the wrong direction and will undermine America's strength.

If we can rebuild schools and hospitals in Iraq out of emergency funding, why can't we provide the resources our own communities need here at home?

We know that rebuilding safe and stable communities in Iraq requires investments in education, training, and health care. And the same is true in communities across America.

If we want to be strong here at home, we need to invest here at home, but this falls far short of what we need.

That is really a disappointment because this bill is the most direct tool we have each year to improve the health and education of the American people.

More than any other appropriations bill, the Labor-HHS bill directly impacts almost every family and every community. This is a bill that funds all of the Federal commitment on education. It provides funding for our investment in biomedical research. It funds all of the Older Americans Act programs. And it provides the funding to retrain our workers to succeed in a very competitive global economy.

This is an important bill and it should be used to invest in America, but instead--this bill cuts funding by $540 million from last year's level. When we add in the Medicare administrative funds, the total cut soars to $1.4 billion.

That means we are moving in the wrong direction--and families are going to feel the impact in health care, education and job training.

Let me start with health care.

This bill cuts total health care funding by $466 million. It cuts programs that help the uninsured get health care, efforts like community health centers, the maternal child health block grant; health professions training, rural health, and CDC disease prevention programs.

This bill also moves us in the wrong direction on disease research. We can all be proud of the National Institutes of Health. It is the leading source of biomedical research into deadly diseases like cancer, MS, Parkinson's, ALS, heart disease, and AIDS. But this bill provides the NIH with the smallest increase since 1970. It would move us backward in our fight against cancer and other terminal illnesses. How can we expect to be able to find vaccines for new global pandemics when we are cutting our investment in critical research?

This conference report will also make it harder for uninsured families to see a doctor. Specifically, this bill eliminates the Health Community Access Program, which I have fought to protect for many years now.

This is a program that helps our local communities to coordinate care for the uninsured and provide integrated health care services for vulnerable families.

I have seen the Community Access Program at work in my home State of Washington, and I know it is making a tremendous difference.

These are the very programs we should be investing in today. The HCAP program was authorized with broad bipartisan support in 2002. But this bill would eliminate this successful community-based model for helping the uninsured.

Not only is this bill bad news for health care, it also moves us in the wrong direction on education.

This bill represents the smallest increase in education in a decade. Today, schools are facing increasing requirements under No Child Left Behind. Today, family are facing rising college tuitions. Today is no time to shortchange education. We know the burdens on our local community are growing.

In the coming year, school districts will face higher academic standards, and they will have to meet new requirements for highly qualified teachers. That means they need more help. But the conference reports cuts funding for the No Child Left Behind Act by 3 percent.

Funding in the conference report is $13.1 billion below the authorized funding level.

This bill also marks the first time in 10 years that the Federal Government will slide backward on its commitment to students with disabilities. The Federal share of special education costs would drop from 18.6 percent in fiscal year 2005 to a flat 18 percent in fiscal year 2006.

Every time we cut back our investment in special education, we are putting a higher burden on local school districts, children, and their families.

In addition, funding for disavantaged students-through title I--will receive its smallest increase in 8 years. In fact, the funding level in this bill is $9.9 billion less than what Congress and President Bush committed to provide. The bill would leave behind 3.1 million students who could be fully served by title I if the program were funded at the committed level.

Many students are feeling the impact of higher tuition. This year, tuition and fees grew by 7.1 percent at 4-year public universities. But the conference report fails to increase the maximum Pell grant award for the fourth year in a row.

It also fails to increase funding supplemental educational opportunity grants, the Work-Study Programs, and the LEAP Program, which supports State need-based aid.

In addition, the conference report also fails to increase funding for GEAR UP and the TRIO Programs, which help disadvantaged students complete high school ready to enter and succeed in college.

This bill also moves us in the wrong direction on helping America's workers.

We hear a great deal about economic recovery and building a strong economy. Yet this conference report will cut adult job training by $31 million. It will cut youth training by $36 million. These programs serve over 420,000 people nationwide. How can we hope to strengthen our economy and help those who lost manufacturing jobs if we are reducing our investment in job training?

All of the tools we need to build a strong economy--and a strong America--are on the chopping block in the Conference Reports.

Worst of all, this is not the end.

We know that there will likely be an across-the-board cut in all discretionary programs, including those funded in the Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill.

That means even more families will lose access to affordable health care, more children and schools will go without the resources they need to meet the Federal mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act, and more workers will see the American dream slip away when their plant closes.

This is not the right message to send to our families and communities.

Let's show them that we want to make America strong again and that we are willing to invest here at home.

I urge my colleagues to reject this conference report and force the Republican leadership to invest in making America stronger.

http://thomas.loc.gov/