Tom Harkin: “again I say why would this amendment kill the bill? It was agreed to by the distinguished chairman of the House…”

“again I say why would this amendment kill the bill? It was agreed to by the distinguished chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Chairman Rogers, last December. This is what we agreed to. Why is it the one bill in Appropriations which speaks to the human needs of our country, the educational needs of our kids, the scientific and research needs we need for addressing some of our chronic illnesses in this country--why is this bill singled out? Why is it singled out to not have a full-standing bill but must be in the continuing resolution at the same level on autopilot as last year? I submit we can make these decisions. We can decide we are going to do these kinds of increases, keeping within the same dollar level as we have in the underlying bill. I don't believe this will kill the bill. I believe those who don't want these increases, who don't want to see an increase in NIH will hold us up and say, yes, it will kill the bill. This is an idle threat. That is what it is, simply an idle threat. This is the third year now where they have put these programs on autopilot. I daresay if we don't do this, this will be the last, we have seen the last of the Labor-HHS appropriations bills ever passed in this body or the other body for many years into the future. We will still be on autopilot. Now is the time to step up, break that trend of putting us on autopilot every year. Now is the time for us to make these decisions.…”