The House Appropriations Committee added about $4 billion over President Bush’s request of $137.8 billion for health, education, and labor programs in a spending blueprint approved May 9. The costs were partly offset by moving about the same amount of money out of defense programs. The spending plan was approved 37-25 along party lines.
The measure provides general guidelines on how much money each appropriations subcommittee can spend on programs under its jurisdiction. Under the legislation, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, which oversees spending on Department of Education programs, would have $141.9 billion to dole out for fiscal 2007.
But even with the proposed additional funds, the spending on health, education, and labor programs would not keep pace with the rate of inflation, according to Kirsten Brost, a spokeswoman for Rep. David R. Obey of Wisconsin, the ranking Democrat on the House appropriations panel.
