WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Denny Rehberg, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education today released the following statement after introducing a funding bill for fiscal year 2012.  The bill has been posted online for public consideration and input.  This legislation contains $153.4 billion in discretionary funding – a $4 billion, or 2.5 percent, reduction compared with last year’s spending level and $27.5 billion, or 15.2 percent, less than the President’s budget request.
 
“This common-sense plan is built on the simple idea that the economy isn’t just a bunch of numbers.  The economy is people.  It’s what impacts them, their hopes and dreams, their families and their lives.  This bill is about investing in people and helping create the jobs they need to take care of their loved ones.  We do that by funding things like education to empower innovation and restore American ingenuity.  But we also invest in people by freeing them from stifling government regulatory burdens that replace productivity with paperwork.  By spending tax dollars strategically, we can balance critical funding for programs that actually help people and families with the real need to rein in government over-spending."
 
The proposed legislation supports job creation and economic recovery.  It strategically achieves this balance both by funding critical job-supporting priorities like education and biomedical research while fostering a pro-job environment by reducing and eliminating harmful and unnecessary federal regulations.  Included in these provisions are measures to prevent the implementation of the President’s health care law, which has been found unconstitutional in multiple courts.
 
Among the provisions of the legislation are:

     • Saves taxpayers $4 billion compared with last year, and $27.5 billion compared with the President’s request
        for this year.
     • Eliminates 79 wasteful programs for a savings of $6.1 billion
     • Rescinds more than $8.6 billion of mandated health reform funds intended for implementation of a law that may
        very well be struck down as unconstitutional.
     • Prevents the Department of Health and Human Services from moving forward with health reform implementation
        until the Supreme Court rules.
     • Provides increased education funding, including Title I, IDEA, Impact Aid, and Indian Education programs.
     • Protects the maximum Pell award at $5,500.
     • Provides increased funding for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
     • Provides increased funding to the Social Security Administration.
     • Denies funding for onerous and unnecessary Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board regulations.

Chairman Rehberg posted the legislation online to solicit additional public comment, and he also noted that the bill is the product of an open process that engaged folks from Montana and around the country.
 
“This bill is the result of the cumulative effort of members of the Subcommittee, and Americans I heard from at 81 listening sessions and in countless meetings in Washington and in Montana.  Now, it’s posted online for the only test that matters, and that's the approval of the American people.”

The bill can be found online at: http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/FY_2012_Final_LHHSE.pdf