Labor-HHS-Education Bill – What’s At Stake: The President's Funding Levels Would Weaken Education, Medical Research, and Other Critical Needs

Publication Date: November 2007

Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): James Horney; Martha Coven

Research Area: Banking and finance

Keywords: Economic projections; Fiscal future; Federal budget

Type: Report

Abstract:

The Senate on November 7 approved a bill (H.R. 3043) that includes funding for programs overseen by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The House is expected to pass this bill and send it on to the President. The President has threatened to veto domestic appropriations bills that do not contain the level of cuts he recommended in the budget he proposed to Congress in February. The President’s budget proposed cutting the Labor-HHS-Education part of the budget by $6.7 billion, or 4.5 percent, below the 2007 level adjusted for inflation. The bill that Congress is likely to send to the White House would increase the Labor-HHS-Education budget by $5.2 billion, or 3.5 percent, over the 2007 level adjusted for inflation in order to make investments in a number of key areas, such as education, health care, and services for children and the elderly. To cut the bill down to the President’s size, $11.9 billion would have to be cut from the bill.