The Nation : House OKs Funds for Health, Education

The House approved legislation to appropriate $135.8 billion to pay for health, education and labor programs, including new money for AIDS research and education. The spending plan, approved 362 to 46, now goes to the Senate. The bill earmarks $98.8 billion, nearly three-quarters of the total, for Social Security, family support payments, the Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the old and poor, and other entitlement programs. The remaining $37 billion is set aside for discretionary programs, including $1.2 billion for AIDS research and education, up $308 million from this year’s level. Overall, the measure would spend $1.1 billion more than President Reagan requested for fiscal 1989. The House also passed, 314 to 96, a second appropriations bill to provide $8 billion for the Commerce, Justice and State departments.