Thursday, November 1, 2007
Fighting For Investments Here At Home
Later today, we will convene the House-Senate conference on the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. I expect a good conference that will produce a good, solid bill. Bear in mind that this bill passed in the Senate on a 75 to 19 vote, including a strong majority of Republican Senators. This bipartisan support reflects the fact that this bill funds essential, life-supporting, and life-saving services for millions of people in this country.
But there's a problem. Even before we brought this bill to the floor, President Bush threatened to veto it because it included a provision to expand embryonic stem cell research, and because it includes $11 billion in funding above what he requested.
As chairman of the subcommittee that wrote the bill, I've done my best to create a spirit of compromise, and to produce a bill that he can sign. I removed the stem-cell provision before bringing the bill to the floor. This is a core priority for me and many other Senators, but I wanted to meet the President half way.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bush seems determined to provoke a confrontation. On Tuesday, he sharply escalated his rhetoric. He reiterated his veto threat, and dismissed the bill as quote-unquote "social spending," as though it pays for Saturday-night socials, or something.
Well, he could not be more wrong. This bill funds bedrock, essential programs and services that have been short-changed in recent years.
The President's budget would have cut cancer research and other medical research at the National Institutes of Health. It would have cut thousands of children from the Head Start program, and thousands of families from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. It would have completely eliminated the safety net that includes job training, housing, and emergency food assistance for our most needy citizens, including seniors and people with disabilities.
Apparently, Mr. Bush sees this as frivolous "social spending." Well, there is nothing frivolous about providing job retraining to workers laid off at Maytag, or home-heating assistance to low-income seniors during the coldest winter months.
Consider the context of his veto threat. During the six years that the Republicans largely controlled Congress, Mr. Bush did not veto a single appropriations bill, including many that exceeded his budget requests.
Just last week, the President sent up a new spending request that brings war spending next year to more than $196 billion, mostly for Iraq. The Congressional Budget Office now estimates that Mr. Bush's war in Iraq will cost a staggering $1.9 trillion through the next decade. Yet he is threatening to veto this bill over $11 billion in funding for education, health, biomedical research and other domestic priorities.
Think about it: The President is demanding that we continue to spend $12 billion a month on his war in Iraq, yet he is threatening to veto this appropriations bill because it spends an additional $11 billion over a full year. This is simply not reasonable.
Well, last week, 75 Senators disagreed with the President, including 29 Republicans. Frankly, as we saw with the Children's Health Insurance bill, more and more Republicans are breaking ranks with Mr. Bush's totally misplaced priorities.
The Senate has come together in a strong, bipartisan fashion. We have met the President half way — in my opinion, more than half way — by removing the stem-cell provision.
I remain an optimist. It is not too late for the President to tone down his rhetoric and call off his veto threat. This bill reflects the values, priorities, and compassion of the American people. It's a bill that he can and should sign.
