WASHINGTON- Nearly a month after it was originally defeated, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 215-213 to pass the final version of the Labor, Health & Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies FY06 Appropriations bill (Labor-HHS-Education). Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) voted against the bill due to the severe cuts to education, health care, job training, and human services.

In addition to the $1.6 billion cut to specific programs in this bill, a one percent across the board cut expected this week will eliminate $1.4 billion more from services for America’s working families. When added to the tax cuts to America’s financially elite in the reconciliation bill passed last week, programs to help America’s economically vulnerable will ultimately be slashed by as much as $48 billion over the next five years.

“I’m puzzled as to how the Republican Majority can make a $1.6 billion cut to critical programs that work to improve education and training in this country when they are ready to embrace a bill to give billions more in tax cuts to the richest Americans,” Stupak said. “That is the most backwards economic development strategy imaginable – fork over money to those who already have it and cut the programs that help ordinary Americans! It becomes more obvious with each appropriations bill that America’s middle class are the ones paying the price for these tax cuts.”

Education programs saw some of the most damaging cuts. As the country’s public education system took on a record 55 million enrolled students this year, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was slashed by $779 million. The bill also shortchanges special education, freezes after-school programs, and cuts funds to train teachers, which is now a mandatory requirements under NCLB.

“Students from low-income families just starting their education and those hoping to move on to higher education suffer the greatest under these cuts,” Stupak said. “Head Start is only able to fund half the eligible 3 to 5 year olds and the promised increase in maximum Pell Grants to assist with college education was frozen for the fourth straight year in a row despite hefty increases in tuition costs.”

Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been exported from the U.S. in recent years. The Republican bill does nothing to help displaced and laid off workers in cutting employment and training programs by $529 million.

Rural health care also took a large funding hit in the Labor-HHS-Education bill. With many rural residents already finding it difficult to access health care due to the distance and affordability, the bill eliminates the Healthy Communities Access Program and state planning grants to improve health care access for the uninsured. The bill also cuts emergency preparedness grants for public health emergencies by $96 million from last year’s level, despite bird flu pandemic threats.

“As consumers anticipate rising heating costs anywhere from 50 to 90%, the Republican bill will not increase the Low-Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help our most vulnerable citizens, like seniors and children, stay warm this winter,” Stupak said. “In addition to being left in the cold, many of these families can expect to take yet another hit because Community Services Block Grants, which provide essential services to low-income families, has been cut by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since when is it an American ideal to leave families and seniors out in the cold?”

Stupak was pleased that the B.J. Stupak Olympic Education Scholarship Program was included in the final bill. The program funded at $980,000 to help athletes pursue their education while training for the Olympics is regularly included in the appropriations bill and not considered a specific earmark. No earmarks were included in the final bill.

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