In a Congressional rarity, the full House of Representatives this week defeated a spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education hammered out by a joint House-Senate conference committee. The bill included FY2006 funding for a majority of the federal government's addiction treatment and prevention programs.

Observers say the reasons for the rejection were less than noble: about two dozen Republicans joined all the House Democrats in voting against the bill, many because they were upset that negotiators stripped all "earmarks" -- also known as "pork" projects -- from the final bill.

The House-Senate compromise bill would have level-funded the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, maintaining spending at the FY2005 level of $1.775 billion. President Bush's Access to Recovery treatment voucher program also would have received no increase over 2005's $100-million budget.

Overall funding for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) would have been cut by $3.8 million compared to FY2005 (to $194.9 million), while the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) budget would have been trimmed by $19.4 million, to $402.9 million. Some of those cuts represented deleted earmarks.

Conferees also proposed cutting $87.4 million from the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFS) State Grants program. Within the National Institutes on Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) budget would have risen a modest $3.3 million, to $1.01 billion, while the budget of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) would have creeped up $1.8 million, to $440 million.

The figures represent compromises between the differing spending bills previously passed by House and Senate committees. Addiction field advocates had called for $1.776 billion for the block grant, $422 million for CSAT, $202 million for CSAP, $400 million for SDFS, $1.035 billion for NIDA, and $452 million for NIAAA.

A Second Bite at the Apple

Despite Congress' failure to hit those targets, however, some field advocates are breathing a sigh of relief, noting that other programs were cut deeply or even eliminated. One funding expert even joked that level funding for the addiction block grant represented a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" in the current budget environment.

That said, the fact that the conference report was defeated means it is back to the drawing board for the Labor-HHS budget. And while some advocates may see this as another opportunity to press lawmakers for higher funding levels for addiction-related programs, others are concerned that more scrutiny of tenuous programs like SDFS by conferees could just as easily lead to deeper cuts, or worse, especially where lawmakers' pet projects are at stake.

Other possible budget scenarios being discussed include an across-the-board cut for all non-defense programs -- which the Legal Action Center notes would mean that "our programs that are being level funded, including the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, are in jeopardy" -- or simply keeping all programs at FY2005 funding levels.

Whatever direction they choose to go, lawmakers are expected to revisit the Labor/HHS bill quickly, since a deal needs to be reached before Congress recesses for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Advocates for addiction treatment and prevention are being urged to support the field-endorsed spending levels in the Labor/HHS budget by contacting the members of the House/Senate conference, which includes Reps. Regula (R-OH), Istook (R-OK), Wicker (R-MS), Northup (R-KY), Cunningham (R-CA), Granger (R-TX), Peterson (R-PA), Sherwood (R-PA), Weldon (R-FL), Walsh (R-NY), Lewis (R-CA), Obey (D-WI), Hoyer (D-MD), Lowey (D-NY), DeLauro (D-CT), Jackson (D-IL), Kennedy (D-RI), and Roybal-Allard (D-CA); and Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Larry Craig (R-ID), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Ted Stevens (R-AK), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Harry Reid (D-NV), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Patty Murray (D-WA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Robert Byrd (D-WV).