Welfare State Mother Lode. This legislation is similar to that described in House bill (below), except that at $354.6 billion it is several billion dollars more expensive than the House version.
[ Welfare State Mother Lode. This U colossal $351.8 billion fiscal 2001 Labor/HHS/Education appropriations bill represents a spending increase of more than seven percent over fiscal 2000. Representative David Obey (D-WI) crowed that Republicans and Democrats were in a bidding war for welfare state spending: "This is ironic given the fact that all day long we were told by the majority that we could not get a vote on the amendments that we were offering on our side of the aisle because they exceeded the numbers in the budget resolution?" ]
The Senate passed H.R. 4577 on June 30, 2000 by a vote of 52-43 (Roll Call 171). We have assigned pluses to the nays.