Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.) on Tuesday said that he will lead an effort by moderate Republicans to defeat the fiscal year 2007 House budget resolution unless House leaders agree to increase discretionary spending for health and education programs, CQ Today reports. The House Budget Committee likely will approve the budget resolution on Wednesday, with a full House vote scheduled for next week (Dennis [1], CQ Today, 3/28). The House budget resolution currently includes an $873 billion cap on discretionary spending requested by President Bush. The cap would result in about a 2% decrease in nonsecurity discretionary spending after inflation and would reduce spending for programs funded under the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill by $4.2 billion (Cohn, CongressDaily, 3/29). The Senate on March 16 passed a budget resolution that would add more than $16 billion to the cap. Prior to final approval, the Senate passed an amendment sponsored by Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) that would add $7 billion to programs under the jurisdiction of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/17). Castle said that he plans to propose a similar amendment, which might have the support of at least 23 other moderate Republicans, to the House budget resolution (Dennis [1], CQ Today, 3/28). Castle said, "My message is clear: I will not vote for a House budget resolution that would result in real cuts to critical federal investments in education, health care, housing, veterans' services, social and community block grants" (CongressDaily, 3/28). However, Castle said that he might support provisions eliminated from the Senate budget resolution that would reduce spending for entitlement programs by $10 billion or more over five years (Dennis [1], CQ Today, 3/28).

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House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, "I think that the spending cap as proposed by the president is the appropriate cap" (CongressDaily, 3/28). According to Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), a member of the House Budget Committee, the House budget resolution likely will include the cap on discretionary spending proposed by Bush and might include spending reductions for entitlement programs "in the single digits" (Dennis [2], CQ Today, 3/28). Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) said, "We've squeezed the discretionary side of the budget very hard, yet we've exempted defense and homeland security," adding, "We have cut this now for two years, and we are down to the bone" (Cohn, CongressDaily, 3/29). Robert Eckel -- president of the American Heart Association, which supports the effort by Castle -- said, "As the House grapples with setting their budget priorities this week, we urge lawmakers not to pinch pennies for programs that treat and prevent cardiovascular disease" (CongressDaily, 3/28).