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On March 29th, the House Budget Committee approved a $2.8 trillion budget resolution or blueprint for the 2007 fiscal year with a 22 to 17 vote. The House budget resolution sets discretionary spending at the level requested in the President's FY 2007 budget, $873 billion. Although the President's budget called for $65 billion in cuts to future spending for entitlement programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, the resolution approved by the House Budget Committee includes $6.8 billion in cuts to be made over a five-year period. None of the savings included in the Budget Committee's Resolution would result from reductions to Medicare. The House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over programs such as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)/welfare program, and the Education and the Workforce Committee, which oversees student financial aid programs, would be required to make the majority of the cuts, $4 billion and $1.3 billion respectively.

During the House Budget Committee's mark-up or review of the budget resolution, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) did propose an amendment to add $7 billion to the sections of the budget that cover health, education, and worker safety programs. This amendment, proposed by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Tom Harkin (D-IA) during the Senate's budget review, was approved by the full Senate and made a part of the Senate Budget Resolution on March 16th. However, Congresswoman DeLauro's amendment failed during the House Budget Committee's mark-up by a 22 to 14 vote. It has been reported that Representatives Michael Castle (R-DE) and Nancy Johnson (R-CT), who both support this additional funding for health, education and labor programs, have been working with the House leadership to include the $7 billion in the final House Resolution. There has also been discussion that Congresswoman DeLauro's amendment may be proposed again during House floor consideration of the budget resolution.

The full House is scheduled to consider the budget resolution next week, prior to Congress's two-week Easter recess. Once the House approves its budget resolution, conferees from both the House and Senate Budget Committees will be appointed to reconcile the differences between the two resolutions. Once there is agreement, the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will have their discretionary spending allocations, which they can then divide into sub-allocations for each of their Subcommittees.

More information about the budget resolution approved by the House Budget Committee can be found on the Committee's website, http://www.house.gov/budget.