The Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Conference Committee met Monday, November 14 and began to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of the Labor-HHS FY 2006 appropriations bill.
Both sides of Congress must pass the same version of a bill before it is sent to the President for his signature. If the House and Senate pass different versions the bill goes to a conference committee. This committee, which consists of Senators and Representatives, works out differences between the bills.
Word from the Hill is that the Labor-HHS conference committee proposes to allocated $150 million above last year to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This amount, which is actually a cut when inflation is factored in, falls far short of the $1 billion increase, a modest 3.7 percent over FY 2005, in the Senate bill.
Sources also report Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS, is not happy about the proposed NIH number. In a statement from his web site Senator Specter said:
“For this key subcommittee to have this kind of an allocation is scandalous. Every item on our tentative conference budget is under last year, under this year. This is just not right as we approach the problems of America.”
While much work remains for the conference committee before the Labor-HHS FY 2006 appropriations bill is sent to the floor of the Senate and House for a vote there is a chance the vote could occur as soon this week.
Following is a list of House members on the Labor-HHS appropriations conference committee:
- Randy Cunningham (R-CA)
- Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
- Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
- Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Dave Weldon (R-FL)
- Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL)
- Anne Northup (R-KY)
- Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
- Roger Wicker (R-MS)
- Nita Lowey (D-NY)
- James Walsh (R-NY)
- Ralph Regula (R-OH)
- Ernest Istook (R-OK)
- John Peterson (R-PA)
- Donald Sherwood (R-PA)
- Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)
- Kay Granger (R-TX)
- David Obey (D-WI)
Following is a list of Senators on the Labor-HHS appropriations conference committee:
- Ted Stevens (R-AK)
- Richard Shelby (R-AL)
- Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Larry Craig (R-ID)
- Richard Durbin (D-IL)
- Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Judd Gregg (R-NH)
- Pete Domenici (R-NM)
- Harry Reid (D-NV)
- Mike DeWine (R-OH)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
- Kay Hutchison (R-TX)
- Patty Murray (D-WA)
- Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Robert Byrd (D-WV)
If your Representative or one of your Senators is on the Labor-HHS conference committee (see above list) contact them this week. Tell them cuts to cancer research will mean delays in new cancer drugs, set-backs to new cancer screenings, and fewer life-saving cancer treatments. Tell them we cannot afford to not spend more on cancer research.
If your Representative or Senators are not on the Labor-HHS conference committee contact them anyway. Urge them to press for a $29.4 billion (the amount in the Senate version) allocation to NIH in the FY 2006 Labor-HHS Appropriation conference bill.
Time is short so take a minute, go to the One Minute Advocate, and follow the instructions to send a message to Congress.
You can make a difference.
December 08, 2005 at 12:04 pm, Advocates in Action said:
House reject cuts to research
On November 17, Democrats and 22 Republicans in the House of Representatives teamed up to reject a spending proposal that reduced spending in health and education programs. The proposal included basically flat funding at the National Institutes of Heal…