Arlen Specter: “when H.R. 3019 passed the Senate on March 19, substantial progress had been made to protect critical funding for…”

“when H.R. 3019 passed the Senate on March 19, substantial progress had been made to protect critical funding for education and training programs. The amendment I offered with Senator Harkin during Senate consideration provided $2.7 billion more for education, job training and Head Start programs for the 1996/1997 academic year. These additional funds were fully offset, thus preserving the balanced budget objectives for discretionary appropriations in fiscal year 1996. The conference agreement before the Senate today maintains the increased funds for education provided by the Specter/Harkin amendment. It also protects funding for other important objectives, such as, worker safety, medical research, health services, and domestic violence prevention. Overall, H.R, 3019 appropriates $64.6 billion for discretionary programs of the Labor, HHS and Education Subcommittee. This is $204 million above the Senate passed bill, $2.6 billion above the House bill, and $2.6 billion, or 4 percent, below the 1995 post-rescission level. Included in the bill is the termination of over 110 programs viewed by the conferees as either having met their objectives, being duplicative of other programs, or having low priority.”