Bill Funding HHS Approved
The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved the fiscal year 2007 Defense and Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bills, which include more than $1 trillion in government spending, CongressDaily reports (Cohn, CongressDaily, 6/13). The Labor-HHS-Education bill -- which the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies last week approved -- includes $454.6 billion in mandatory spending for entitlements such as Medicaid and Medicare, along with $141.9 billion in discretionary funding, a 0.6% increase from FY 2006 levels (Schuler, CQ Today, 6/13).
The House also voted 351-67 to approve $94.5 billion in FY 2006 supplemental spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, border security, hurricane relief and pandemic flu preparedness, according to CongressDaily. The measure is expected to pass the Senate this week (CongressDaily, 6/13).