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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

House bill funds Pell Grants, AIDS

Andrew Taylor Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Democrats unveiled a $463.5 billion catchall spending bill late Monday to boost funding for community health centers, lower-income college students and efforts to combat AIDS overseas – while sticking within the confines of President Bush’s tight constraints for the ongoing budget year.

The bill, slated for a House vote Wednesday, finds money for Democratic priorities by cutting Pentagon efforts to implement a 2005 round of base closings and freezing hundreds of federal accounts at last year’s levels.

The measure sticks within President Bush’s tight cap on domestic agency budgets, but Democrats still don’t see much to like.

“I don’t expect people to love this proposal, I don’t love this proposal, and we probably have made some wrong choices,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis. “At least we have made them in order to bring last year’s issues to a conclusion so we can turn the page and deal with next year’s priorities.”

For their part, Republicans in the House complained that they weren’t sufficiently consulted and were being asked to vote on a bill comprising the budgets of 13 Cabinet agencies on little more than a day’s notice.

The bill would freeze most federal accounts at 2006 levels, though there are numerous exceptions so that agencies can avoid furloughs and hiring freezes, and for a few programs, such as health research and education, favored by Democrats.

And programs such as medical care for veterans and active-duty military personnel eat up much of a $10 billion-to-$12 billion pot scraped together by staff aides by freezing other accounts.

Among the beneficiaries is the National Institutes of Health, which would receive a $620 million budget increase – about 2 percent. The FBI, facing hiring curbs, would get a modest $200 million increase in its $6 billion budget.

Some of Bush’s initiatives, such as a $5.5 billion request to implement a round of military base closures passed two years ago, absorbed deep cuts. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England warned lawmakers last month that shortfalls for the base closing initiative “could result in postponing scheduled redeployments from overseas stations to the United States” as well as slow the Army’s moves to boost overseas deployment in smaller, more nimble fighting units.

Negotiators cut $3 billion from Bush’s base closing request, but may look to make up some of the shortfall in the $100 billion-plus Iraq funding bill scheduled to advance this spring.