House Democrats on Monday unveiled a spending bill in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education that would restore pre-sequester funding or more to those departments.
“All of these programs have been languishing in neglect,” said Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-Conn.), the subpanel’s ranking member.
{mosads}The 161-page bill they introduced supports higher funding levels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Head Start, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Social Security Administration, among other programs. Democrats say it meets the House subcommittee’s allocation of $155.7 billion by increasing mandatory offsets beyond 2014 levels.
House Republicans, meanwhile, haven’t introduced a bill to fund the Departments of Labor, Education or Health and Human Services for three of the last four years.
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the full Appropriations Committee, told reporters on a conference call Monday it’s “inexcusable” Republicans are being stopped by “fear [of] being criticized by the most extreme and ideological voices in the party.”
A spokeswoman for House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said the committee’s goal is to complete all appropriations work this year. She said the panel has acted on 11 out of the 12 appropriations bills, and the House has passed seven.
“The Democrat-led Senate however, has not passed a single one. Senate leadership must allow the completion of Appropriations legislation so that all areas of government, including those that fall under the Labor, Health and Human services bill, can be responsibly funded in a timely manner,” Jennifer Hing said in an email to The Hill.
The Democrats’ bill would provide $244 million more than current levels for the CDC, $778 million more for the NIH, $360 million more for the Social Security Administration and $271 million more for Head Start, among the programs that would receive additional funding.
The bill likely won’t receive any action, at least for now, because a short-term spending bill was already released last week, which would fund the government through Dec. 11.