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On Thursday, June 19, 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies considered and passed a funding bill for fiscal year (FY) 2009. Though details of the bill have not been released by the committee, a press statement on the bill indicated that total funding for the FY2009 Labor-HHS-Ed Appropriations bill was set at $153 billion, $7.7 billion above President Bush's FY2009 request and $7.9 billion above final FY2008 funding levels.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) was a big winner under this bill with a $1.2 billion increase over FY2008. According to Chairman David Obey, the funding will result in more than 1,000 new research grants.
The subcommittee rejected Administration proposed cuts of $240 million to health professions and nursing education and proposed an additional $69 million in funding to train the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.
Early childhood, K-12, and higher education programs, such as IDEA Part B, Head Start, NCLB Title I, and Pell grants all received modest increases. The federal share of special education funding under IDEA would only increase from 17.2% to 17.5%.
Should you have any questions about the fiscal year 2009 Labor-HHS-Ed appropriations bill, please contact Neil Snyder, ASHA's Director of Federal Advocacy, at nsnyder@asha.org or 800-498-2071, ext. 5614.
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