President Bush Vetoes Nearly $8 Million in Washington State Education, Health Care and Labor Projects

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, President Bush vetoed the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHS) Appropriations bill that funds the governments annual spending on education, health care and labor. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) included $7,875,000 for projects throughout Washington state in this critical legislation. Senator Murray released the following statement after President Bush vetoed the bill:

"Today President Bush said no to nurses in Spokane, low-income students in Seattle, and forest workers in Lewis County. He dashed the hopes of the uninsured in Olympia, new parents in Tacoma, and homeless veterans across the country. He did so under the guise of being a fiscal conservative, but nobody’s fooled."

"While this President puts one hand out for another $196 billion for the war, he stamps a veto on investments in our future with the other. By vetoing this critical funding the President reaffirmed that educating our kids, treating our sick, and building our workforce are secondary to the War in Iraq.

"I will work with my Senate colleagues to override the Presidents veto and bring these much needed federal dollars to our state."

The funding levels for programs Murray included for Washington state are listed below**.  Read the descriptions of these programs.

Labor

• Community Agricultural Vocational Institute (Yakima): $250,000
• Northwest Washington Electrical Industry Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (Mount Vernon): $150,000
• Pacific Mountain Workforce Consortium – Forestry training (Tumwater): $140,000
• Port Jobs (Seattle): $100,000
• Southwest Washington Workforce Development Council (Vancouver): $150,000
• Washington Workforce Association In Demand Scholars (Vancouver): $400,000

Education

• Child Care Resource and Referral Network (Tacoma):  $900,000
• Jumpstart Seattle:  $240,000
• Deaf Blind Service Center (Seattle):  $350,000
• Washington State University mentoring for women in science (Pullman):  $350,000
• Northwest Center (Seattle/King County):  $200,000

Health Care

• CHOICE Regional (Olympia): $300,000
• SCCA Proton Therapy (Seattle): $1.5 million
• WSU Nursing School (Spokane): $1,345,000
• NW Hospital Community Health Education (Seattle): $1 million
• Community Home Health and Hospice (Longview): $250,000
• Providence Telehealth (Spokane): $250,000

**Please use only those funding levels listed on this release as they are the current funding levels in the bill. Please do not use levels from descriptions on linked page.