House panel cuts health and school aid [View All]

House panel cuts health and school aid

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Health research, school aid and social services for the poor would bear budget cuts under a bill approved by a House panel Wednesday.

But despite the cuts in a bill providing $141.9 billion for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, lawmakers found $1 billion more than last year for back-home projects unrequested by President Bush. Those include grants to local hospitals and clinics and research earmarks for universities and colleges in lawmakers' districts.

The House Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee approved the bill by a 9-7 party-line vote Wednesday after Democrats such as Rep. David Obey (news, bio, voting record) savaged the bill for its cuts to the National Institutes of Health, programs funded by the 2002 No Child Left Behind education bill and for reducing the federal share for special education programs.

Overall, the NIH would be frozen at last year's levels, though almost every individual institute — including those funding research into child development, alcohol and drug abuse, mental health and general medicine — would face cuts.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060607/ap_on_go_co/congress_spending