Senate Begins Debate On Labor-HHS-Education Spending Bill That President Bush Has Threatened To Veto

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 19 Oct 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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The Senate on Wednesday began debate on a $606 billion fiscal year 2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, and President Bush reiterated his threat to veto the legislation, the AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports (Taylor, AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/17).

The bill includes $152 billion in discretionary spending for health care and other programs. Bush has proposed to reduce discretionary spending for programs covered under the bill by $3.6 billion from FY 2007, and Democrats have proposed to increase spending by about $7 billion (Cohn, CongressDaily, 10/18). Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said that the legislation "provides health care for many of our poorest citizens" and "funds medical research to help ease human suffering."

However, Bush said that he would veto the bill because of "irresponsible and excessive spending" included in the legislation (AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/17).

The Senate likely will pass the bill in the next few days. The House approved a different version of the legislation earlier this year, and informal negotiations to resolve differences in the bills have begun (CongressDaily, 10/18). Democrats to date have not sent Bush any of the 12 FY 2008 appropriations bills, at least 10 of which he has threatened to veto. The fiscal year began on Oct. 1, and Cabinet departments and federal agencies since that time have operated on a continuing resolution (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 10/16).

Criticism From Bush
Bush on Wednesday at a press conference criticized Democrats for their failure to send him any of the appropriations bills or legislation related to other issues, the AP/Philadelphia Daily News reports (Hunt, AP/Philadelphia Daily News, 10/18). He said, "I think it's their fault the bills aren't moving," adding, "How can you find common ground when there's no appropriations process?" (Stolberg, New York Times, 10/18).

In addition, Bush said, "The two houses need to work out their differences on these bills and get them to my desk as soon as possible. They also need to pass the remaining spending bills one at a time and in a fiscally responsible way" (CongressDaily, 10/18).

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