The House Appropriations Committee approved by voice vote yesterday the FY 2005 funding bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. True to form the large spending bill attracted a number of amendments dealing with social policy.

The committee voted to approve the spending bill after rejecting a Democratic amendment to block new Labor Department overtime pay rules. The Committee also adopted language that would tighten existing curbs on the federal funding of abortions. The House leadership has said that the contentious abortion issue and the busy House schedule make it unlikely that the Labor-HHS bill will be debated on the floor before the August recess.

The bill would provide $142.5 billion in discretionary funding, $3.1 billion more than allocated in FY 04 and $202 million more than requested in President Bush’s FY 2005 budget request.

The Labor-HHS measure, approved by subcommittee on July 8, totals $492.3 billion when mandatory entitlement programs, such as Medicaid are included. Democrats have criticized the bill, saying it does not provide enough funding for cash-strapped states and school districts that are struggling to meet the requirements imposed under the 2001 education overhaul.