DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION--CONFERENCE REPORT--Re

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Title VII health professions programs have a long tradition of responding to the needs of medically underserved communities as well as providing support to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of our health care workforce. Under this bill, a broad array of small but essential programs pertaining to trauma care systems, geriatrics training and education, and emergency medical services will be eliminated. Over the past several years, Senator ROBERTS and I have led a strong bipartisan effort in support of these essential education and training programs. Gutting these programs is penny-wise and pound-foolish. It will cripple our ability as a nation to be better prepared for the inevitable emergencies and tragedies that happen every day and the demographic tidal wave that will soon be hitting our health care system.
The bill also neglected to include a Senate amendment allocating nearly $8 billion in emergency funds to combat the avian flu. Instead, the conference report actually diverts millions from the annual influenza program budget to pay for rural health programs, with a promise that funding for avian flu would be included in the pending Defense appropriations bill but at a much lower amount than the Senate originally provided.

This conference report fails to provide sufficient funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, LIHEAP. Rising energy prices threaten to financially overwhelm low-income families and seniors. This winter, the average family will face a $1,000 natural gas bill, an increase of 38 percent from just last year. For families using heating oil, prices are projected to hit $1,400, an increase of 21 percent over last year. These price increases are overcoming workers' salaries and seniors' Social Security checks. American families need economic relief from high energy prices. They need the security to know they will not have to decide between heating their homes or feeding their families and paying the energy bill or buying lifesaving medicines. With a sharp increase in energy prices this year, it is obvious that level funding for the LIHEAP program is inadequate. A majority of the Senate supports $5.1 billion in funding for LIHEAP, but this conference report does not reflect the will of my colleagues.

This conference report fails the American people in a number of very important ways. It fails to maintain our promise to give children the opportunity to achieve their full potential. It fails to preserve our commitment to groundbreaking and potentially lifesaving advancements in medicine. And it fails to sustain support for essential programs that help vulnerable Americans.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, American families are ready for a change. They take a look at the priorities of this Republican Congress and the record of the Republican Party and say: it is time for a new direction for our country.

You need to look no further than the Labor-HHS conference report. It is a low point of a Republican Congress that is disengaged from the real needs of American families. This bill is a crowning achievement of a Republican agenda out of touch with voters.

Republicans are ignoring the problems that matter most to families in Illinois and all across the country health care, education, and jobs.

What we have is a bill that cuts education funding for the first the first time in a decade, slashes health funding by more than $300 million, and eliminates funding for trauma care.

This bill pulls the rug out from under America's working families.

Many working families have children in public schools. I have been in a lot of public schools in Illinois that serve lower income kids. No matter how successful those schools are, I can tell you--they don't have money to spare. This bill actually spends less Federal money on schools and education than any federal budget in the last 10 years.

How can we in good conscience reduce our commitment to education for low-income kids in public schools?

But perhaps one of the more striking failures of the reconferenced version of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill is the utter lack of concern over preparing for the avian flu.

Never mind that this bill eliminates the $7.9 billion added to this bill on the Senate floor to help local hospitals and health departments get ready for what pandemic flu.

This conference report goes so far as to take an additional $120 million out of already underfunded accounts at the CDC-money specifically designated to prepare for pandemic flu.

``We'll take care of that later,'' we were told.

Meanwhile, my understanding is that the Defense appropriations bill includes half of the funding the Senate approved--half of the funding the President requested--to prepare for avian flu.

What is driving these cuts is a tax reconciliation that benefits corporations and the wealthiest among us. Those benefits come at the expense of basic guarantees for working American families--that they can have decent public schools; that they can see a doctor; that they have a chance to getting back into the workforce when they are out; and that if a killer flu pandemic breaks out in this country we will have the capacity, the drugs, and the organization to beat it back.

As a member of the conference committee, I did not sign the conference report and strongly oppose it.

Together, America can do better.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, tonight the Senate adopted the fiscal year 2006 Labor-HHS-Education conference report by a voice vote. I would like to note for the Record that I do not support this legislation.

This bill reflects the misguided priorities of the Republican Congress and will shortchange vital health care, education, and labor programs in order to cut taxes.

At a time when the need for a well-educated, well-trained workforce is more critical than ever, Republican conferees provided education, health care, and job training programs $1.4 billion below last year's level.

This bill cuts education funding for the first time in a decade. It cuts funding for No Child Left Behind Act programs, and the maximum Pell grant is frozen for the fourth year in a row, even as college costs are skyrocketing. And, for the first time 10 years, the Federal Government will slide backward on its commitment to students with disabilities because this bill cuts the Federal share of the costs of special education.

At a time when most Americans cite health care as their top priority, Republican conferees provided health care programs $466 million below last year's level, including a $137 million in cuts to rural health programs and a $185 million cut to the Bureau of Health Professions. Cutting these programs will make it even harder to recruit qualified professionals in many parts of the country.

Moreover, Republican conferees eliminated nine vital health care programs altogether, including trauma care, rural emergency medical services, the geriatric education centers, health education training centers, and the healthy community access program. As a result of these cuts, not one new community health center will be created next year.

At a time when we are the verge of major new breakthroughs in disease prevention and treatment, the conference agreement also includes the smallest percentage increase for the National Institutes of Health, NIH, since 1970, which will hinder promising medical research and disease prevention initiatives.

These are just a few examples of the unconscionable cuts to crucial programs in this bill. Unfortunately, these cuts will be even deeper because the Republicans imposed an across-the-board cut against all nondefense and homeland security programs in the Defense appropriations bill.

In summary, Mr. President this bill is bad for our children, bad for workers, bad for seniors, and bad for this nation. America can do better.

Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, I rise today in opposition to the conference report to accompany the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. This bill does not reflect our Nation's shared priorities and is a far cry from representing Wisconsin values. The people of Wisconsin value quality education for their children, affordable and decent health care for their families, and sound job training for workers. This bill falls short on all three accounts.

For the first time in a decade, the LHHS bill cuts total Federal education funding. Funding for No Child Left Behind programs would be cut by $779 million bringing it to its lowest level since 2002. Funding for Title I, which serves low-income, disadvantaged students and schools across the nation, would receive $9.9 billion below the authorized level, its smallest increase in 8 years. And again, Congress fails to live up to its promise to provide 40 percent of the costs of educating students with disabilities: the bill cuts the Federal share of special education spending from 18.6 percent to 18.0 percent, just as our school districts are struggling to keep up with rising costs. Funding for Pell grant awards, which help make higher education affordable for many students, is frozen at $4,050 for the fourth year in a row, funding for Even Start and Education Technology is slashed, and funding for the National Youth Sports Program is eliminated, leaving almost 1,500 Wisconsin young people without summer enrichment programs they have come to count on. The list goes on and on.
And education is not the only investment shortchanged. Some of the largest cuts in the LHHS bill are in programs that help shore up the health care safety net for people lacking other access to care and that address shortages of healthcare providers in underserved urban and rural areas. The conference report cuts funding for community health centers, which serve the uninsured and underinsured, to a lower level than provided in either the House or Senate versions of the bill. This amount would not allow a single new community health center to open in the coming year. Funding for the Bureau of Health Professions, which helps recruit qualified health professions throughout the country, would be cut by $185 million, including the elimination of geriatric education centers and health education training centers. Rural health programs would be cut by $137 million, including the elimination of the healthy community access program and rural emergency medical services.

In addition, funding levels have not kept pace with our need for investment in lifesaving biomedical research. The National Institutes of Health's budget would receive a funding increase of less than 1 percent, the smallest percentage increase to NIH since 1970. NIH will have to reduce the numbers of research grants awarded by 355. The bill would provide no increase in Federal funding for Alzheimer's research threatening the progress of promising research on that devastating disease. Less money would be available to support new research grants, attract talented, young researchers to the promising field of Alzheimer's research and fund clinical trials to test new drugs to treat the disease--and this is just one example of the damage to vital research that the LHHS conference report would do.

Labor programs are not immune from the slash and burn approach to appropriations embodied in the conference report before us. They are cut by $430 million. At a time when five percent of Americans, and four and a half percent of people from my State of Wisconsin, are unemployed, this bill wrongly reduces adult job training by $31 million and youth job training by $36 million. Instead of helping the unemployed find work and providing training to upgrade the skills of those who have jobs, this conference report turns its back to them.

I know we can do better for our children and families. I supported the Senate version of this bill, which was bipartisan and passed by a vote of 94-3. Unfortunately, this conference report falls far short; it is neither bipartisan nor bicameral, and actually provides $1.4 billion less than last year's level. In fact, LHHS is the only fiscal year 2006 appropriations bill to receive an overall cut in funding from last year.

I want to thank Senators Specter and Harkin for working tirelessly to improve this bill. I also want to thank them for the modest increases they provided in the CMS Survey and Certification program, the ombudsman program, as well as their work to restore Perkins funding. However, I cannot support a bill that forces our schools, our health care system, and our workforce to do more with less. I urge my colleagues to join me in rejecting this conference report.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the Christmas spirit was nowhere to be found tonight on the floor of the United States Senate as Republicans rushed through unconscionable cuts to the programs that American families deserve. This conference report affects the lives of every single American, and it lets them down. It fails our commitments to the education of our children, to our health care, to the poor, and to our jobs. At a time when we should be moving forward, and helping families meet the challenges of higher costs, this conference report moves us backward.
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EDUCATION

Parents know that education is a critical factor in making the American dream a reality for their children. An educated citizenry also makes a strong Nation possible. We cannot compete in the world without skilled workers. We cannot maintain a strong defense without a skilled and educated military.

Once again, the United States has been presented with a global challenge, as we were when the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1958. In order to face this challenge with confidence, we should invest in the transforming power of education. That's not what this conference report says. This conference report says that education is not a priority. It says global competitiveness is not a priority. It says basic fairness is not a priority. It says the American dream is not a priority.

In the face of this global challenge, this conference report does not invest more in education. In fact, for the first time in a decade, this conference report cuts the education budget. As we learn more about the critical importance of early education, as our elementary and secondary schools struggle to help our children meet higher standards, as a college degree is becoming an imperative, and as the cost of that degree is skyrocketing, the Federal budget for education is actually going down.

If our country is to remain strong in this rapidly changing world, our economy must work for everyone, and every American must have an equal opportunity to succeed. No Child Left Behind is not just a political slogan. It's a solemn pledge to every parent and every child in America.

At a time when requirements under the law are more demanding than ever, this conference report cuts funding overall for No Child Left Behind programs by $1 billion, for a total that is $13.4 billion less than promised in the law. Over 3.2 million children will be left behind. Next year, schools have to raise the bar for adequate yearly progress, administer tests in reading and math on an annual basis, and ensure that all teachers are highly qualified. This conference report tells them they're on their own.

Title I--the key NCLB program, which targets disadvantaged students--is cut for the first time in 13 years. Title I funds will be $28 million lower than last year, and 160,000 fewer children will be served. Funding to Massachusetts schools will be cut more than $4.3 million.

The conference report cuts Head Start funds by $68.5 million, leaving 750,000 eligible preschoolers without services, and dropping from the program 9,500 children who are currently enrolled in Head Start classrooms. It slashes the Even Start family literacy program, taking services away from nearly 35,000 children.

The conference report cuts funds for after-school programs, denying after-school programs to 13,000 children currently enrolled. The conference report also cuts funds to keep our schools safe and drug-free.

With the first cut to special education funding in a decade, this conference report moves backwards on our commitment to disabled students. The Federal share of the cost of educating students with disabilities actually drops from 18.6 percent last year to 17.8 percent this year. The funding in the report is more than $4 billion short of the amount promised just 1 year ago when we passed the IDEA Improvement Act.

At a time when American students are performing below the international average in math and science, the conference report cuts $13 million in funds for the Math and Science Partnerships at the Department of Education, leaving funding well below half of the amount promised in No Child Left Behind.
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