The United States Senate approved the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education Appropriations Act of 2008 (H.R. 3043, as amended) by a roll call vote of 75-19. Twenty-nine Republican senators joined with forty-five Democrats in support of the bill, setting up the first round of the endgame appropriations battle with President Bush.
The president has threatened to veto the bill due to what the Administration deems "an irresponsible and excessive level of spending." A Republican motion to send the bill back to the Senate Appropriations committee to reduce the bill's funding level was not agreed to by a roll call vote of 40-54.
The Senate immediately called for a conference and named its conferees with the House to resolve funding and policy differences in their versions of the Labor-HHS-Education bills. The House, which passed its version of this bill back on July 19th by a margin of 276-140, is expected to name their conferees shortly. 290 votes would be needed in the House to override a presidential veto. Final 2008 funding levels may not be resolved until late December.
The Fiscal Year 2008 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill provides annual funding for such things as Medicare, Medicaid, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Early Hearing Detection & Intervention (EHDI) program. President Bush has requested nearly $141 billion in funding for the Departments of Labor-HHS-Education, which is $4 billion less from 2007, $10 billion lower then the House-passed bill, and $9 billion lower then the Senate.
ASHA has been working with many organizations in the education, health, and workforce communities to get this bill passed into law. ASHA is working on multiple strategies including media, grassroots advocacy, and public events to highlight the need for the positive investments contained within this bill. For further information about the appropriations process or legislation, please contact Neil Snyder, ASHA's Director of Federal Advocacy, by e-mail at nsnyder@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4257.
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