Labor-HHS-Education Bill Heads to Conference

Tuesday, October 23, the Senate passed H.R. 3043, the fiscal year 2008 (FY08) Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, by a veto-proof majority of 75-19. After four days of debating amendments, the bill is now ready for conference with the House, after which the President will have his first opportunity to follow through on his veto threats of any appropriations bills that exceed his funding requests. Congressional leaders plan to send the Labor-HHS-Education bill, the largest domestic spending legislation, to the President as soon as possible.

The Senate bill includes $606 billion in FY08 for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Education. The $149.9 billion in discretionary spending, which is $5.4 billion over FY07, is over $9 billion more than the President requested in his budget proposal. Within that number, the Senate increased the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) budget to $58 billion, $2 billion above FY07. A number of ED’s programs also received sizable increases.

The Senate bill increases Title I education grant funding by $1 billion, Pell grants by $826 million, special education funding by $528 million and funding for the Head Start program by $200 million. The House bill contains a $25 million increase for career and technical education (CTE). Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) proposed a similar amendment to the Senate version, but the Senate tabled the amendment, opting to level fund CTE programs. The CTE Congressional Caucus is lobbying for the House’s increase to appear in the final conference report.

The bill now heads to conference with the House, which provides about $2 billion more than the Senate. At a stakeholder’s meeting two weeks ago, Sen. Harkin said he hoped to come out of conference with levels closer to the House’s proposal. Congressional leaders expect a speedy conference, tentatively scheduled for next week. If negotiations proceed according to plan, President Bush may have the bill on his desk by the first full week in November, at which time most members of Congress are expecting him to issue a veto.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill is usually one of the last bills to make it through both chambers of Congress, but not this year. It will be the first to reach the President because the Democratic leadership knows he will veto it and they want to capture any political advantage that it may provide. Democrats will attempt to contrast the veto to the spending in Iraq and use this battle to shift the focus from Congress’ failure to pass all twelve spending bills by the start of the fiscal year, which was a major campaign promise of the Democratic majority. Once the President vetoes the bill, appropriators will go to work on either a large omnibus bill, or a few “minibus” bills, which will include multiple spending measures lumped into larger packages.

Meanwhile, the current continuing resolution (CR), which authorizes funding for government agencies at the previous fiscal year’s spending levels, runs out in mid-November. Congress will need to pass an additional CR to keep the government running through December, at which point leaders hope to have the final omnibus finished. While this process leaves time for additional changes, the final bill, in whatever form, will likely contain numbers similar to the conference report appropriators turn out next week.

Resources:
Alex Wayne, “Senate Passes Labor-HHS-Education Spending Bill,” CQ Today, October 23, 2007.
Kelsey Lamb, “Senate Passes Labor-HHS Spending Bill With Unexpected Ease,” Congress Now, October 23, 2007.
Author: SAS