Further Conference Report on H.R. 3010, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
FURTHER CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3010, DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - December 14, 2005)
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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, to my colleague on the other side of the aisle, I just might add that this is the people's bill. But, unfortunately, this particular bill is not meeting the needs of the American public as has been aptly pointed out by my colleague from Wisconsin.
I also might say that there has been bipartisan support in the past because together we could come together and increase the opportunity, whether it was IDEA, whether it was for low-income assistance, whether it was for education, and it was a rallying point on a bipartisan basis to do something for the American people.
Mr. Speaker, when we defeated this bill in November, it cut health research, college loans and low-income energy assistance. It cut assistance to working families and the unemployed by almost 4 percent. And at a time when America is falling behind competitors like China, whose economy is growing three times as fast as ours, it cut worker training. That bill failed by a bipartisan vote of 209 to 224.
What about the bill is so different this time that it warrants passage? Very little. Indeed, this bill is at the same funding level, simply shifting money from one underfunded priority to another. If anything, once you consider the additional $1.4 billion in cuts that the Republican leadership intends to impose with a 1 percent government-wide across-the-board cut, this bill is worse.
I understand that the chairman and his staff are doing their best. I do recognize that this bill includes many programs that the President had slated for elimination, especially in the area of education and community services block grants. But his is an impossible mission. He has been asked to craft a spending bill with resources that do not even allow for us to meet last year's levels with inflation. And why? And why? Not because America cannot fund these priorities. We are the richest country in the world. Rather, it is because the Republican leadership has chosen to use the funds we have for tax cuts that only impact Americans earning over $200,000 per year. I might add that 53 percent of those tax cuts will go to people who make over $1 million a year. That is the real story behind this so-called budget crunch. That is what is preventing us from providing so many needed resources to help the good people of this country, the good people in our communities to look to government in times of need, and they are looking to government today, and we are saying to them, what government says is: Later for you. Forget it. We are not there when you need it.
As I said in November, ask any middle class family today what is important to them, tax cuts for wealthy Americans or things like lowering the cost of health care, of heating their homes this winter or sending their kids to college? They will tell you every time that all they want is something that makes a difference in their lives and in their family's lives. This bill fails the test. I urge my colleagues to oppose it.
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