Arlen Specter: “notwithstanding the fact that this bill contains funding for many, many vital programs for America, I decided on balance…”

“notwithstanding the fact that this bill contains funding for many, many vital programs for America, I decided on balance to vote against it because it made such drastic changes in existing procedure where the Constitution gives to the Congress the authority to appropriate, 435 Members in the House and 100 Members in the Senate, and as the arrangements were finally worked out, critical decisions were made excluding the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, excluding the chairmen of the relevant subcommittees such as myself, with only the Speaker, the leader of the Democrats in the House, our distinguished majority leader, and the minority leader in the Senate. I think that is very, very problemsome. During the time allotted to me this morning I intend to summarize my views. Starting first with the accomplishments, it does provide for $83.3 billion in discretionary spending for the subcommittee which I chair which has jurisdiction over three major departments--the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor. There were some very important appropriations items included, such as a $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health.”