Republicans gave back more than $1 billion that the House had previously cut from food programs at home and overseas, even as the GOP betrayed its own appetite for increased science and infrastructure funding.
Among major accounts, $6.62 billion is provided for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, about $570 million more than the House approved in June. The National Science Foundation is promised an estimated $7 billion - $173 million above 2011. And while highway spending will drop from 2011 levels, the $39.1 billion cap compares with the much-tighter $27 billion ceiling first recommended by the House Appropriations Committee.
Attached to the measure is a stopgap spending resolution that will keep the rest of the government operating through Dec. 16, and the goal is complete passage by Friday, when the current continuing resolution expires. Filling over 400 pages, the conference report covers five Cabinet departments together with major science agencies and by filing Monday night, the leadership hopes to take the bill to the House floor Thursday.House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) welcomed the agreement as a “bipartisan compromise that will prevent a potential government shutdown, support important programs and services that the American people rely on, and make hard but necessary cuts to help rein in the nation’s deficit. …We’ve cut total discretionary spending for the second year in a row – a remarkable achievement.”
Indeed, in keeping with the August debt-limit agreement, the bill continues the downward pressure on discretionary spending — and on balance, appears about $3 billion under the amount comparable accounts were at last year. But a big part of that savings is eaten up by $2.3 billion in increased disaster aid following on the severe storms of this past year.
Science investments were a big winner, even to the point where the agreement went beyond the amounts either the House or Senate had previously recommended.
For example, funding for science and research within the National Institute of Standards and Technology is set at $567 million, a 12 percent increase over 2011 and more than either chamber had proposed previously. The NSF total is a second such case that exceeds both the House and Senate bills.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68362.html#ixzz1dtDrMB00
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