Senator Daschle's amendment to the FY2005 Budget Resolution, allowing an increase of $3.44 billion for Indian Health Service Clinical Services, died on the Senate floor yesterday, with 54 voting against the amendment, and 42 voting for the amendment. According to the Senate Republican Policy Committee, this amendment would increase spending for the Indian Health Service to $6.12 billion for FY2005. For FY2004, Congress appropriated $2.921 billion for the IHS. The President’s budget request for FY2005 is $2.967. The Daschle amendment would have represented a 1-year, 110-percent increase in IHS funding.
All of this leads one to ask where Tom Daschle's clout is, and how he can claim to have "delivered for South Dakota" when he couldn't round up the votes needed to get this amendment passed. Could it be that this amendment was purely empty political posturing in an election year, rather than an attempt at trying to accomplish something reasonable? Say it ain't so!
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