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Ending months of arduous work, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill which would fund nearly all government operations for the next fiscal year and adjourned for the holidays. The $555 billion bill compiles the 11 remaining spending bills for FY2008, including the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (Labor-HHS) and Veterans Affairs (VA) appropriations. The President is expected to sign the federal spending legislation into law sometime before the end of the year.
After initially passing funding bills that added significantly to domestic programs, President Bush and congressional leaders were at a standoff as the year came to an end on a variety of policy issues and spending levels. Overall, the omnibus funding legislation represents significant concessions to the President's proposed domestic funding levels, while preserving a number of congressional Democratic program priorities.
Most federal education programs received either no or nominal increases over 2007 spending with the exception being No Child Left Behind (NCLB) that received $24.8 billion, $1.1 billion above 2007. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B State Grants received $11 billion or $550 million above the President's 2008 request and $259 million above 2007. The federal share of funding the education of students with disabilities will increase from 17.2% in 2007 to 17.3% in 2008.
The bill also provides $110.9 million for expanding of the National Children's Study–an increase of almost $42 million over the 2007 funding level. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will receive approximately $29.2 billion, about $329 million over FY2007 levels. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will see an increase of nearly $110 million for a total funding level of $6.38 billion in FY2008.
The Newborn Hearing Screening program at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) received roughly a $2 million increase over FY2007 to $11.8 million; and the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was increased to just over $10 million in FY2008.
The Veterans Health Administration will receive $37.2 billion under the FY2008 omnibus spending bill–an increase of $4.5 billion from FY2007 and $2.6 more than President Bush requested.
The legislation also contained funding for several other initiatives of interest to ASHA members:
- $268,000 to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation for its 21st Century Scholars program;
- $100,000 to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, for a teletherapy program to address the shortage of speech language pathologists;
- $300,000 to the Hackett-Bower Clinic at Magnolia Speech School in Jackson, MS, for acquisition of equipment and programs; and
- $175,000 to the National Cued Speech Association for parent, teacher, and transliterator training and certification in cued speech for preschool and school-aged children.
For further information or questions about federal funding, please contact Neil Snyder, ASHA's Director of Federal Advocacy, by e-mail at nsnyder@asha.org or by phone at 202-624-7750.
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