Congress staggered home Dec. 19 after the House wrapped up a $555 billion omnibus appropriations bill that included an additional $70 billion for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only 78 Democrats voted for it, while 141 said no.
The measure rolled 11 appropriations bills into a single bill. It was the second try, as President George W. Bush had vetoed an earlier omnibus measure that was $11 more than he had proposed. The Democratic majority, lacking the votes to override that veto, grudgingly agreed to the spending total but did some minor tinkering on how it would be spent.
Congressional earmarks for pet projects were trimmed back by about 25 percent but still approached 9,000, totaling nearly $8 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Funding for research at NIH also went up, but not enough to cover inflation.
Funding for global health programs, primarily for HIV, increased a substantial $1.2 billion, to $6.5 billion. Domestically, Ryan White AIDS services programs received a modest $29 million increase. That is a bit more than 1 percent in the $2.167 billion program. It is less than the cost of inflation for the year, and not enough to address the growing caseload.
San Francisco will not suffer quite so great a loss a under the proposed Bush budget thanks to the efforts of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to assure inclusion of a 'stop-loss' provision in the final bill. Instead of the $8.5 million in reduced spending under the Bush budget, just over half, $4.8 million, will be restored.
The HIV prevention budget at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was actually cut by $3.6 million, to $692 million. This is after no increases over the last five years. It is no wonder that the number of new HIV infections in the US is believed to be increasing. The CDC is likely to make those numbers public early in 2008.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, applauded a $10.5 million increase in the runaway and homeless program, the first in four years. GLBT youth are disproportionately likely to either be kicked out of or run away from their homes when parents learn of their sexual orientation.
He called it 'a disgrace that even one penny is going to be spent on abstinence-only programs.' But at least the program ultimately did not receive the $21 increase in funding proposed by Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., as part of an attempt to build Republican support for the overall spending package.
Another small victory came in the 'war on drugs,' where the White House drug czar's ad budget was slashed to $60 million for this year. That is less than half of the $130 million proposed in Bush's budget, and less than the $99 million spent in fiscal year 2007. Much of the advertising has focused on 'evils' of marijuana.
Hate crimes legislation that would have expanded coverage to include sexual orientation and gender identity had been dropped earlier in the month from the appropriations bill for the Department of Defense.
Another area of backtracking was in overturning the ban on funds for groups working overseas that offer abortions and information about them with separate, non-government funds. The Democrats first lifted the 'Mexico City' rule adopted during the Reagan administration, but abandoned that effort in the final package of legislative compromises.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has decided that the Senate technically would remain in session over the holidays, with a single member opening and quickly closing business every few days. That will prevent President Bush from making 'recess appointments' that are good for the remainder of the legislative term.
Bush previously had used that power to name controversial judges whose confirmation had been held up in the Senate, such as Charles Pickering, as well as John Bolton to be Ambassador to the United Nations. This year one rumor had been that he might name the antigay James Holsinger to be U.S. Surgeon General.
