Providing a better tomorrow for America’s Children, Workers and Veterans

Washington D.C. – Last night, Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, voted along with 269 of his colleagues to pass and send to the US Senate, a Conference Report including the 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill and the 2008 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill. If the Conference Report is passed by the Senate and signed by the President, it will mark the largest increase in Veteran’s Affairs Administration funding in that institution’s history and will also provide much needed support to educate kids with disabilities, job training, helping families facing rising energy prices and improving healthcare. In response to the vote, Mr. Conyers made the following statement:

“Appropriations bills are moral statements. They document the direction that we as a Congress desire our nation to go. With our vote on H.R. 3043 today, we once again have an opportunity to show Americans that the 110th Congress is committed to taking our Nation in a New Direction -- putting the needs of the American people first and making long-delayed investments in our future.

The Administration apparently feels that while it is necessary to spend $ 12 billion a month in Iraq, the Federal Year 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill is just $9.8 billion too expensive and needs to be vetoed. He believes that an extra $10 billion to provide grants to low-income children for after school programs, increasing the purchasing power of Pell Grants, fund job training programs for dislocated worker and helping families facing rising energy prices with the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is just wasteful spending.

By passing H.R. 3043, which combines the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education FY 08 Appropriations bill and the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs FY 08 Appropriations bill, we will be making the largest investment in veterans’ health care in history and making long overdue investments in education, worker safety and health care for our citizens.

This bill will help our veterans, workers, children, and families by:

o Providing $14.8 billion for Title I, which forms the cornerstone of federal K-12 education funding under No Child Left Behind and provides extra academic support to more than 18 million students in more than 54, 000 public schools.

o Allocating $11.3 billion for IDEA state grant and increasing the federal share of the cost of educating children with disabilities to 17.7% to help ensure that children with disabilities can meet the same achievement standards set for all children.

o Investing $1.1 billion for 21st Century Learning After-School Centers that provides a safe place for supervised after school activities for 130,000 more students than the President’s budget.

o Providing $7 billion for Head Start, which under the President’s proposal would reduce the number of children receiving Head Start by 1,202 in Michigan.

o Appropriating $43 billion in funding for veterans, of which $37.2 billion is for veterans’ health care a total $4 billion more than what the President asked.