Congressional Record: February 8, 2005 (Senate)
Page S1073-S1075
RETAINING CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE LABOR, HHS, AND EDUCATION SUBCOMMITTEE
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, in a few moments we are going to be
moving to the class action bill. Senator Durbin is due to arrive to
offer an amendment. In the intervening time, I would like to take a few
minutes to discuss my decision to retain the chairmanship of the
Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education. The Appropriations Committee has been considering the
formation of a new subcommittee on intelligence. Under my seniority
position, I would have been in a position to take that subcommittee
assignment. I have had a very keen interest in intelligence, chairing
the Senate Intelligence Committee in the 104th Congress, being coauthor
of the homeland security bill, and the fight against terrorism is
obviously our No. 1 priority. So, I have been very strongly tempted to
take on that chairmanship.
It now appears that the status of that subcommittee is in doubt
because the decision has been made to not make a disclosure of the
total funding for the intelligence community. With the announcement of
the President's budget, which is austere, we are facing major problems
with the deficit and the President has come in with a very restricted
budget, which impacts very heavily on the subcommittee that I have
chaired now for many years.
The Department of Labor, for example, has cut some $400 million; the
Department of Health and Human Services has been cut by $1.8 billion;
the Department of Education cut by some $500 million. So that the total
impact on the subcommittee has been a reduction of $2.4 billion, which
is very difficult when you are talking about education and health and
capital investments. Those are not expenditures, they are capital
investments--as are programs related to worker safety.
The President has proposed some programs that are excellent. There is
$45 million for a new gang youth initiative, which has been sponsored
and spoken about by First Lady Laura Bush. There is $125 million for
health care information technology, which is an increase of $25
million. This is funding the subcommittee had started some time ago to
enhance technology and information. We have had an increase in
community health centers of about $304 million. There is a new program
for high school risk initiatives, for high school students who are at
risk.
At the same time, there have been major eliminations. For example,
the so-called GEAR UP program, which provides for the transition from
the seventh grade on through high school, has been cut by more than
$306 million. The vocational and technical education programs have been
cut by $1.3 billion. Educational Technology State Grants have been cut
by $496 million, and correctional educational programs have been cut by
$26.8 million. There have also been major decreases in training; some
$333 million is cut from employment and training programs; $29 million
is cut from the Job Corps; $35 million from a program for ex-offenders
has been eliminated.
There has been a decrease in Healthy Start. The Centers for Disease
Control has been cut by $555 million, which is a little hard to
understand at a time when we are calling on the CDC to undertake so
many new actions. The program for low-income home energy assistance--a
very vital program, especially for seniors who have to make decisions
on limited compensation as to whether they will heat or eat--has been
cut by some $182 million. Graduate medical education has had a decrease
of $101 million. Perhaps of greatest concern--and it is hard to
prioritize these cuts--has been the budget proposed by the
administration for the National Institutes of Health, which has an
increase of one-half of 1 percent, which will not maintain the research
program of NIH.
I am joined on the floor by my distinguished colleague from Iowa,
Senator Harkin, who has been with me as chair of the subcommittee for
more than a decade. Senator Harkin and I have established what might be
referred to as and others have called a model for bipartisan
cooperation. We have had
[[Page S1074]]
changes in the gavel on the chairmanship and they have been seamless.
Our efforts on many important items, which I will not detail at this
time have, I think, been very important for the health and education
and labor of Americans.
We have increased NIH funding from $12 billion to $28 billion, which
has provided for enormous improvements. There has been a march toward
cures in Parkinson's, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and many other
illnesses. In the context of what is happening with these programs, I
have decided to stay and fight rather than switch.
I am delighted to yield to Senator Harkin.
Mr. HARKIN. I thank my leader and chairman for yielding to me. Again,
I want to thank him for his decision to stay as chairman of the
Appropriations subcommittee that funds basically all of our health,
education, labor, biomedical research programs, preventive health care
programs, such as the CDC, which are all underneath this subcommittee.
Senator Specter and I have worked together, as he mentioned, going on
I think almost 15 years. The gavel has moved back and forth. It has
been seamless, as he said. I could not ask for a better partner and a
better chairman to work with on this subcommittee. There are countless
numbers of people in this country today--I think mostly of the kids--
who are maybe coming down with Parkinson's or diabetes, who have
illnesses facing them that a few years ago were hopeless. But now they
have hope. Now they can see certain lights at the end of the tunnel,
that they will be cured, that they will be well.
This is due in no small part to the great leadership of Senator Arlen
Specter of Pennsylvania, who has doggedly through the years fought to
make sure we put the money into medical research, into finding the
causes, preventions, and cures of these illnesses. It was through his
great leadership that we were able to double the funding for the NIH.
There are also countless kids in America today who are getting good
school programs, who are in Head Start Programs, as I mentioned
earlier, and others, because of the leadership of Senator Arlen Specter
of Pennsylvania. So I thank him for that leadership and for his
friendship and, as always, for his willingness to work across party
lines to get things done.
Someone once mentioned that there are really two powerful committees
on Appropriations: One is the Defense Appropriations Committee and the
other is what is now called the Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education, which the Senator chairs and on which I am the ranking
member.
Someone once said that the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee is the
committee that defends America. The Appropriations Subcommittee on
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education is the committee that
defines America. I believe that really is true.
Thanks to the leadership of Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, we
have defined America well in terms of providing good education, health
care programs, job training programs, dislocated worker programs--I am
not going to go through the whole list--the Centers for Disease Control
programs and the public health service they do across our country.
Under the leadership of Arlen Specter, we have defined well for
America.
We have some tough choices, as he pointed out, in this budget, and we
are going to have to work together to make it work. One thing I can
say, having worked with Senator Specter all these years, one thing of
which I am confident is that Senator Specter will be fair,
compassionate, reasonable, and judicious in helping us work out this
budget so that the poorest and the most needy in our society are not
left behind.
I thank him for his leadership. I thank him for his willingness to
stick with it and to stay as the chairman of this very vital
subcommittee. I say to him here on the Senate floor and in public, I
look forward to his leadership and his guidance and working with him to
help continue to define America.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from
Iowa for those very complimentary comments. It has been very gratifying
for me to work with Senator Harkin for these many years as we have had
the seamless exchange of the gavel.
I would not want my statement to suggest that there are not other
areas of major concern as to the Administration's budget. The zeroing
out of Amtrak is something which will have to be addressed by the
Congress. There have been efforts made since Senator Baker, the then-
majority leader, convened a meeting in his office with OMB Director
David Stockman in 1981, and we maintained Amtrak's funding. Veterans
will have to be reexamined, and many other items. I know we are going
to move ahead on the class action bill.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a statement in further
explanation of my decision be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Statement of Further Explanation
Since January of 1989, I have had the privilege of serving
as either the Chairman or the ranking member of the
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations. Since that
time, Senator Harkin and I have fought to dramatically
increase funding for the NIH, replace deteriorating and
outdated laboratory space at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, increase funds for elementary and secondary
education and aid to disadvantaged college students, and
provide for worker protection. These accomplishments have not
come without challenges. The Subcommittee's allocation has
limited our ability to increase programs as much as I would
have liked, and dividing funding among many worthy programs
has been a struggle. But I have enjoyed these challenges, the
all night conferences with the House, and balancing the
Congressional and Presidential priorities.
This year when the Senate passed a resolution to create an
Appropriations Subcommittee on Intelligence it was at a time
when the policy position of the Senate was to have an
Intelligence budget that was unclassified. Subsequently, the
decision was made to maintain the status quo and keep the
budget classified. Since it would be difficult to create an
Intelligence subcommittee with a classified budget, it may
not be possible to do so at this time. However, discussions
are still underway and if such a subcommittee were to be
created, given my seniority on the Appropriations Committee,
I would have the opportunity to chair that subcommittee. I
have given serious consideration to taking that chairmanship.
I believe that heading the Intelligence subcommittee at a
time when this Nation's intelligence community is being
restructured is very significant and is something in which I
have great interest.
I am reluctant to give up the Subcommittee on Labor,
Health, Human Services, and Education and the reasons for my
reluctance are many.
national institutes of health
I have been on the Labor, HHS, Education Subcommittee since
I first came to the Senate in 1981. At that time the funding
for the NIH was something less than $3.6 billion. As I begin
my 25th year, the current budget is $28.6 billion. Senator
Tom Harkin and I have had a significant impact on this budget
and as a result of our leadership and persistence we achieved
our goal of doubling the medical research budget from FY'98
to FY'03.
But doubling the NIH budget is not enough. One of the most
important reasons to continue my Labor-HHS Chairmanship is to
continue to increase support for the NIH. Science has made
great strides in extending life expectancy--in the early
1900s, 47 years was the average life span--today 77 years is
the norm. Polio, smallpox, and other infectious diseases no
longer kill or cause suffering to large numbers of people.
Deaths due to heart disease have been cut by more than half
since 1950. Cancer deaths in both men and women have
decreased and some cancers like multiple myelomas have been
reduced from a death sentence to a chronic condition as a
result of new drugs developed through biomedical research.
But there is still an enormous challenge. Heart disease
continues to be the number one killer and cancer is now
number two.
Last year, I lost two of my closest friends as a result of
breast cancer--Carey Lackman Slease and Paula Kline. While
the best medical teams worked on their cases--no cure could
be found. Several times a week, I receive calls from friends
and constituents asking me to contact the NIH to see if there
is any cutting edge treatment for diseases that affect them
or their families. And while there are some successes there
are many losses--like Carey and Paula.
We also receive many requests from constituents and
advocacy groups asking me to hold hearings to focus attention
on their particular ailments in the hopes of
receiving increased medical research for their disease.
There is a long list of maladies that people suffer from
where there could be cures: autism, Parkinson's,
scleroderma, muscular dystrophy, osteoporosis, cervical
cancer, lymphoma, prostate cancer, colon cancer,
[[Page S1075]]
brain cancer, pediatric renal disorders, glaucoma, sickle
cell anemia, spinal cord injury, arthritis, a variety of
mental health disorders, hepatitis, deafness, stroke,
Alzheimer's, spinal muscular atrophy, amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis--commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease--
diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, multiple myeloma,
pancreatic cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer,
multiple sclerosis, macular degeneration, heart disease,
infant sudden death syndrome, schizophrenia, polycystic
kidney disease, Cooley's anemia, stroke, primary immune
deficiency disorders.
The tragic aspect of these deadly diseases is that they
could all be cured, I do believe, if we had sufficient
funding. Continuing my Chairmanship will permit me to fight
for increased dollars to find these cures.
stem cells
In December of 1998, I held the first Congressional hearing
on the issue of human embryonic stem cells. The Labor, HHS,
Education Subcommittee provides funding for biomedical
research at the NIH. At that time, no federal funds were
going to this critical research. As Chairman, I have been
able to focus attention on the promise of these stem cells to
alleviate suffering and save lives. In 2004, NIH funded $24.2
million in the area of human embryonic stem cell research. I
continue to lead the effort to provide additional funding for
stem cell research without arbitrary restrictions. To
continue to focus attention and provide resources for the
incredible potential of stem cell research to save lives, it
is critical for me to remain as Chairman of the Labor, HHS,
Education Subcommittee.
women's health
I have long held a strong interest in issues related to the
health of women. As Chairman, I supported the creation of an
Office of Women's Health at the NIH to ensure adequate
research into diseases and maladies affecting women;
supported the funding of the first Healthy Start
Demonstration sites to improve the health of pregnant women
and their babies, now funded at $104 million; supported
increases in family planning programs, funded at $288 million
this year, that empower women to make healthy reproductive
decisions; and supported increases in rape prevention and
domestic violence prevention. These programs remain important
to me. To continue to nurture these programs, it is important
for me to remain as Chairman of the Labor, HHS, Education
Subcommittee.
centers for disease control and prevention
In 2000, I visited the Centers for Disease Control &
Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, GA. I was surprised by
the dilapidated state of the buildings where you had eminent
scientists working in deplorable conditions. Expensive
scientific equipment was housed in hallways and under leaky
roofs. At that time, funding for facilities at CDC was only
$17.8 million. The Labor, HHS, Education Subcommittee began
to focus resources in 2001 to reconstruct the infrastructure
of the CDC, whose critical public health mission is to
protect the American people from outbreaks of disease. In
2001, we were able to provide $175 million and we have
provided over $250 million in each of the last three years.
This effort continues as several substandard facilities
remain. To continue to provide the resources for critical
infrastructure at the CDC, it is important for me to remain
as Chairman of the Labor, HHS, Education Subcommittee.
worker protection
The Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Subcommittee has
jurisdiction over the principal federal agencies responsible
for protecting the American workforce. These ``worker
protection'' agencies include: The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration, the Mine Safety and Health
Administration, and the National Labor Relations Board. The
jurisdiction also includes the Employment Standards
Administration, which is charged with enforcing minimum wage
and overtime laws, child labor protection, and administering
workers' compensation benefits. In addition, the Employee
Benefits Security Administration oversees private pension,
health and welfare plans, and would administer proposed
Association Health Plan legislation to assist small
businesses in purchasing affordable health coverage. Under
the leadership of Tom Harkin and myself, we provided $1.5
billion for these agencies this year. Continuing my
partnership with Senator Harkin will ensure sufficient
dollars will be available to protect this nation's workers.
asbestos
As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have a
longstanding commitment to crafting a legislative solution on
asbestos compensation, and once enacted, to ensuring that it
is expeditiously implemented. As chairman of the Labor-HHS-Ed
Subcommittee which oversees funding for the Department of
Labor, I will be in the unique position to ensure that an
administrative system is established promptly, and that
claims are processed fairly.
education
In the area of education, I know from personal experience
the opportunities that are created through a high-quality
education. As a Senator, I have sought to make the American
dream a possibility for each and every American, whether it
means great public schools for America's children, affordable
alternatives at our Nation's outstanding colleges and
universities, high-quality career and technical education
programs, or investments in Head Start and other early care
and development programs.
In my role as Ranking Member or Chairman of the Labor-HHS-
Education Appropriations Subcommittee, I have helped increase
the budget of the U.S. Department of Education from $24.7
billion in FY95 to $56.6 billion in FY05, an increase of 129
percent. This was made possible by the strong, bi-partisan
working relationship I have with Senator Tom Harkin, my
partner on the subcommittee.
no child left behind
Since 1995, the Subcommittee has increased Federal support
for K-12 education by more than 100 percent, and most of the
increases have been provided in programs that provide
significant flexibility to States and local schools so they
can direct funds to the areas that will best support improved
student achievement and to eliminate the achievement gap in
this country. Today under the No Child Left Behind funding is
$24.4 billion, up more than 40 percent or $7 billion, since
the Act was passed by Congress in December 2001. As Chairman
of the Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Subcommittee, I
am proud to have played a part in the many positive
developments in the area of education, but more work needs to
be done.
I believe that the future of the United States will be
shaped by the minds, skills and abilities of today's
students, and it is my hope and intent to help make sure that
they are prepared to make that future even brighter than it
is today.
individuals with disabilities education act
We have made substantial progress in meeting our
obligations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act. When the law was enacted in 1975, the Federal Government
promised to be a 40 percent partner in meeting the extra
costs associated with improving educational opportunities for
students with disabilities. For the first 20 years after the
law was signed, the Federal contribution hovered around 8 to
9 percent. I am proud to report that over the past 10 years
we have improved on that record by raising the Federal
contribution from 8 percent to 19 percent almost halfway to
the 40 percent goal. As Chairman, along with my partner Tom
Harkin, we will continue to ensure that the Federal
contribution continues to increase and that students with
disabilities are assessed with suitable tests, provided the
supports they need to achieve at the best of their ability,
and supported in their transition to employment and further
education.
pell grants
During the past decade, the Pell Grant program has helped
millions of students with the cost of furthering their
education. By raising the Pell Grant maximum award to $4,050
in FY`05, up $1,710 over the FY`95 award maximum, millions of
low and middle income students have received more grant aid
that assists them with the increasing price of a post-
secondary education. Appropriated funds have more than
doubled over the FY`95 level, and, as a result, more than 5.3
million students currently receive grant assistance to make
post-secondary education more affordable. As Chairman, I will
continue to make sure that every qualified student desiring
to attend college can afford to do so and work in a
profession of his or her choosing, without overbearing
student loan payments.
conclusion
Continuing my Chairmanship on the Labor, HHS, and Education
Subcommittee will give me the opportunity to continue to
target funds to programs and projects that are of great value
to the State of Pennsylvania. These dollars have created
jobs; increased the biomedical infrastructure of the State
making it more competitive; provided health care facilities
and supported seed monies for local programs related to
abstinence, mental health, education and bioterrorism.
I have been contacted by 281 individuals or organizations
requesting that I continue my Chairmanship. The reasons for
their requests are many: labor groups are asking for my
continued support on worker protection programs; biomedical
research groups are asking me to once again champion
increased medical research dollars; women's groups are
requesting my continued support for women's health and family
planning programs; education groups urge me to continue to
increase Federal support for elementary, secondary and higher
education.
The Chairman of the Labor, HHS, and Education Subcommittee
will face many challenges in this Congress. The most
difficult will be finding funding for the Congressional and
Presidential priorities within the current fiscal environment
and achieving the proper balance so that all priorities can
be met.
Continuing my Chairmanship would afford me the opportunity
to protect the programs and priorities that I have long
championed.
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