Mike Enzi: “I wish to address the pending legislation, the conference report for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education…”

“I wish to address the pending legislation, the conference report for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations legislation, which has been combined with the Fiscal Year 2008 Military Construction VA appropriations legislation. I encourage my colleagues to cut right to the chase. Packaging these bills together is an effort to force President Bush to sign the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, which he opposes and will veto, by combining it with a Military Construction Veterans funding bill that cleared the Senate with almost unanimous consent. We ought to be working to write funding bills that are acceptable on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and debating these conference reports separately. Instead what we are seeing is 2008 election year politicking at work. I voted against the Labor-HHS appropriations bill on the floor because of the overall spending level, which was roughly $9 billion over the administration's request. Now I understand that this portion of the conference report grew by an additional $840 million beyond what the Senate passed. The level of spending in this title of the conference report is excessive and will add to the huge financial burden we are leaving for our children and grandchildren. So while this legislation is well intentioned, I cannot support it. Nine billion dollars may not seem like much money in the context of a budget that totals more than $2 trillion.”