Arlen Specter: “I am optimistic today that the Congress will move forward with an omnibus appropriations bill to cover the departments…”

“I am optimistic today that the Congress will move forward with an omnibus appropriations bill to cover the departments now not covered in existing legislation. I have been particularly concerned about what has happened to the subcommittee of Appropriations which I have the honor to chair, the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. The absence of an appropriations bill in these departments has been very, very, very problemsome. It has been impossible for the Secretary of Labor to plan on worker safety and impossible for the Secretary of Education to advise various States as to the allocation of their funding. It has been impossible for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make allocations on very important items, although we have taken some items out like the National Institutes of Health, where we have maintained, again, an increased appropriation on that very important line. I had scheduled last week a hearing of the three Secretaries to outline the needs of their Departments and to the approaches which they might be able to take. I deferred that hearing because, in the absence of knowing how much the additional funding would be, it was impossible to have that hearing in a meaningful way.”