Nancy Pelosi: “Today we have before the House an agreement on the remaining spending bills for fiscal year 1996. This bill reflects…”

“Today we have before the House an agreement on the remaining spending bills for fiscal year 1996. This bill reflects significant movement in the right direction. I was pleased to work for many of the President's priorities as a member of the conference committee. Last year, the Republican Leadership made a conscious decision to hold priority programs for education, job training, and environmental protection hostage to their demands for tax cuts for the wealthy and deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. The Gingrich agenda has thrown the congressional budget process into chaos. This conference agreement is a great improvement over the extreme House bill. Yet, the priorities in spending for fiscal year 1996 are difficult to justify. At the same time the majority is providing $7 billion more than requested by the Pentagon for defense programs, they are cutting deeply into priority programs which invest in our Nation's future. Let me comment specifically on the conference agreement on the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. This bill provides for some of the highest priority investments for our future--the health and education of the American people. The bill provides $64.5 billion in discretionary spending, a decrease of $2.6 billion from comparable 1995 spending and $7.5 billion less than the President's request.”