A U.S. House panel approved a large swath of domestic spending, including $35 million for Alabama hospitals and health centers, last week.
The House Appropriations Committee advanced legislation to fund the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education departments for the next fiscal year, led by subcommittee chair U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville.
Subscribe directly to The Alabama Baptist — no church required
The measure includes cuts to all three departments. It allocates about $110.8 billion to HHS, which is a $4 billion cut from this year’s enacted level.
“There were a lot of things that we would like to put in this bill, but obviously when we are approaching a $40 trillion debt in this country…we’ve got to make sure that we’re not spending money… in areas that we have…duplicates of other agencies,” Aderholt told Alabama Daily News. “That’s where we’ve tried to make some of the cuts.”
While the top Democrat on the subcommittee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, decried some of the health care cuts in the bill, such as the proposed cancellation of $2 billion from the operation of the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Democrats also said the bill cuts HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment funds under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget.
“This bill squeezes working families from both ends — increasing costs for daily necessities while hollowing out health, education, nutrition and employment programs that support the working class, middle class and vulnerable Americans,” DeLauro said in a statement.
But the National Institutes of Health will get a modest boost under the bill. Lawmakers allocated $48.8 billion for the agency, which is about a $100 million increase over the current enacted level. It also stands in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s proposed budget that called for reducing funding for the health research agency by $5 billion.
“I think the American taxpayers want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to try to cure diseases like cancer, and NIH is what works on that, and that’s why they need to be funded,” Aderholt told ADN. “So we did make sure that we had ample money for them.”
Money for Alabama hospitals
Community project funding, or earmarks, returned to the House Labor-HHS-Education bill this year after being banned for the last few years. But the money is largely limited to hospitals. The House bill proposes about $35 million for Alabama projects from five members of the state’s delegation.
Aderholt, the chair of the subcommittee, secured the most money out of the delegation with $22.1 million for four hospitals in his district.
“One thing that I wanted to do is try to help local health centers and hospitals, especially in rural areas, to make sure they don’t close and make sure that everybody has access, regardless of their zip code and regardless of where they live,” Aderholt said.
Other members of the delegation who secured earmarks in the bill include U.S. Reps. Mike Rogers at $5 million, Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, at $4.75 million, Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, at $2.1 million and Barry Moore with one project at $1 million.
Full story.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Alex Angle and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
Share with others: