Advocates for education won a significant symbolic victory last week when the Senate agreed to shift $250-billion over the next 10 years from President Bush’s proposed $1.6-trillion tax cut to increase spending on Pell Grants and other education programs. The Senate added money for the National Institutes of Health as well.
By a vote of 53 to 47, the chamber approved an amendment to the budget resolution that would raise the maximum Pell Grant by $600, to $4,350. Offered by Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, the amendment would also provide substantial increases for College Work-Study and the federal TRIO programs for disadvantaged students, as well as for several elementary- and secondary-education programs.
Sen. Thomas A. Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, declared the outcome of the vote to be “a repudiation of the president’s policies and priorities.”
College lobbyists and biomedical researchers were pleased by the passage of the amendments but acknowledged that the victories were more symbolic than real, since Congressional budget resolutions are nonbinding. The plans simply dictate how much money is allocated to each appropriations subcommittee to finance the programs in its domain.
Still, the vote to reduce the president’s tax-cut plan by increasing education spending was embarrassing enough to Senate Republican leaders that they plan to call for another vote.
The Senate majority leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, ensured that the Republicans would be able to do so, when, realizing that the amendment was headed for passage, he switched sides to vote in favor of it. Under Senate rules, only those who have supported an amendment can call for a revote.
During the debate on the bill, G.O.P. senators accused the Democrats of robbing the taxpayers to pay for each and every one of their pet programs. “Every time we turn around, a huge amount of money that is scheduled under our president’s proposal to go to the taxpayers of America is taken away from them for another program, another activity,” said Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
But the Democrats noted that Mr. Bush himself has described education as his pet program. “The president said he wants to leave no child behind -- he wants education to be the No. 1 priority,” said Mr. Harkin. “But the tax cut that the president is proposing is 76 times greater than the investments he would provide for education.”
In addition to Mr. Lott, the other Republicans who voted for the amendment were Sens. Lincoln D. Chafee of Rhode Island, James M. Jeffords of Vermont, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia was the only Democrat to vote against the amendment.
The Senate overwhelmingly voted to increase spending for the National Institutes of Health over the level proposed by President Bush, in order to keep the agency’s budget on track to double by 2003.
By a vote of 96 to 4, the lawmakers added $700-million to the increase of $2.7-billion that the House of Representatives had approved in its version of the budget resolution passed last week.
All told, the Senate version would bring the N.I.H.'s budget for the 2002 fiscal year to $23.7-billion, an increase of 16.7 percent.
The House version was identical to a proposal made in February by Mr. Bush, who called for an increase of 13.8 percent. The president’s proposal would still provide the agency with the largest one-year dollar increase in its history. An annual increase of about 15 percent is required to attain the doubling goal over five years.
The vote reflected the strong advocacy for the agency by Sens. Specter and Harkin. They are, respectively, the chairman and top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee that sets spending for the Department of Health and Human Services.
In supporting the amendment, Mr. Harkin said: “At no time in our history have we been so close to major advances in the fight against killer diseases. Now is the time to boost our investment, to make sure that America’s top scientists can turn these dreams into reality.”
A final vote on the Senate budget resolution was expected late last week. If it is approved, House and Senate leaders would meet to resolve differences between the two chambers’ budget resolutions.
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