The Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill was approved in subcommittee yesterday by a vote of 18-0, moving it to full committee next week. The $492.3 billion bill for fiscal year 2005 contains $142.5 billion in discretionary spending, a 2.2% increase from FY04. A Democratic amendment from ranking member David Obey (Wisconsin) to provide an additional $7.4 billion to programs was defeated along party lines. The increases to individual programs were mostly in line with what the administration requested, with the bottom line for discretionary spending only $202 million higher. Mandatory spending in the bill totalled almost $350 billion.