Following a series of three continuing resolutions, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHS-ED) Appropriations Act, 2005, was enacted on December 8, 2004, as Division F of P.L. 108-447 , the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005 ( H.R. 4818 , H.Rept. 108-792 ) . Prior to the 0.80% reduction for most discretionary activities (see page 8 ), the act provides $144.0 billion for L-HHS-ED discretionary programs; the comparable FY2004 amount was $139.8 billion. On September 15, 2004, the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported S. 2810 ( S.Rept. 108-345 ) . The bill would have provided $145.9 billion in L-HHS-ED discretionary appropriations for FY2005. On September 9, 2004, the House amended and approved H.R. 5006 ( H.Rept. 108-636 ) , its version of FY2005 bill, which would have provided $143.1 billion in L-HHS-ED discretionary appropriations. On February 2, 2004, the President submitted the FY2005 budget to Congress; the request was for $142.9 billion in discretionary funds for L-HHS-ED programs. Table 1 summarizes the legislative status of FY2005 L-HHS-ED appropriations. In this report, data on FY2004 and FY2005 appropriations are based on the FY2005 L-HHS-ED conference report, H.Rept. 108-792 , November 20, 2004. The FY2005 House appropriations represent the H.R. 5006 amounts approved by the House on September 9, 2004; the FY2005 Senate appropriations represent the S. 2810 amounts reported by the Senate Committee on Appropriations on September 15, 2004. The FY2005 conference amounts are pre-reduction and do not take into account the cuts (see page 8 ) required elsewhere in P.L. 108-447 , the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005. The FY2004 amounts are post-reduction and primarily are based on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, P.L. 108-199 (see page 43 ). In most cases, data represent net funding for specific programs and activities and take into account current and forward funding and advance appropriations; however, all data are subject to additional budgetary scorekeeping. Except where noted, budget data refer only to those programs within the purview of the L-HHS-ED appropriations bill, and not to all programs within the jurisdiction of the relevant departments and agencies, including funding from other appropriations bills and entitlements funded outside of the annual appropriations process. This report describes the President's proposal for FY2005 appropriations for L-HHS-ED programs, as submitted to the Congress February 2, 2004, and the congressional response to that proposal. It compares the President's FY2005 request to the FY2004 L-HHS-ED amounts. It tracks legislative action and congressional issues related to the FY2005 L-HHS-ED appropriations bill, with particular attention paid to discretionary programs. In addition, the report summarizes activities related to the annual budget process, such as the congressional budget resolution, continuing resolutions, and supplemental appropriations (see " Related Legislation "). However, the report does not follow specific funding issues related to mandatory L-HHS-ED programs—such as Medicare or Social Security—nor will it follow the authorizing legislation associated with funding some of the President's initiatives. For a glossary of budget terms and relevant websites, see Appendix A . For funding resources for L-HHS-ED agencies, see Appendix B . The L-HHS-ED bill typically is one of the more controversial of the 13 regular appropriations bills, not only because of the size of its funding total and the scope of its programs, but also because of the continuing importance of various related issues, such as restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion, stem cell research, and human cloning, or modifications of overtime pay regulations. This bill provides most of the discretionary funds for three federal departments and several related agencies including the Social Security Administration (SSA). Of the 13 annual appropriations bills, the L-HHS-ED bill is the largest single source of discretionary funds for domestic federal programs; the Defense bill is the largest source of discretionary funds among all federal programs. For FY2004, the L-HHS-ED bill accounted for $140.9 billion (17.9%) and the Defense bill accounted for $336.1 billion (46.5%) of the estimated $787.3 billion total for all federal discretionary budget authority, as reported in Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 2005 , Table S-5. This section summarizes major funding changes proposed for L-HHS-ED and related issues such as 302(b) allocations, advance appropriations, and earmarks for specific projects. Later sections provide additional details for each L-HHS-ED department. Table 2 summarizes the L-HHS-ED appropriations for FY2005, including both discretionary and mandatory appropriations. The table shows various aggregate measures of final FY2004 and proposed FY2005 L-HHS-ED appropriations, including discretionary program level, current year, and advance appropriations, as well as scorekeeping adjustments. Program level appropriations reflect the total discretionary appropriations in a given bill, regardless of the year in which they will be spent, and therefore include advance funding for future years. Unless otherwise specified, appropriations levels in this report refer to program level amounts . Current year appropriations represent discretionary appropriations in a given bill for the current year, plus discretionary appropriations for the current year that were enacted in prior years. Current year discretionary appropriations are similar to the amount counted for the 302(b) allocations ceilings (discussed later, page 11 ). Advance appropriations are funds that will not become available until after the fiscal year for which the appropriations are enacted—for example, funds included in the FY2004 act that cannot be spent before FY2005 at the earliest (discussed later, page 12 ). Scorekeeping adjustments are made to account for special funding situations; the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) monitors these adjustments. Because appropriations may consist of mixtures of budget authority enacted in various years, two summary measures are frequently used—program level appropriations and current year appropriations. How are these measures related? For an "operational definition," program level funding equals (a) current year, plus (b) advances for future years, minus (c) advances from prior years, and minus (d) scorekeeping adjustments. Table 2 shows these amounts, along with current year funding for mandatory programs and some grand totals for the L-HHS-ED bill. The President's FY2005 request was submitted to Congress on February 2, 2004, less than two weeks after the regular FY2004 L-HHS-ED appropriations were signed into law as P.L. 108-199 (enacted January 23, 2004). With regard to the President's budget, the primary issues raised during congressional consideration of any appropriations request generally relate to proposed funding changes. The summary below notes changes proposed for FY2005 discretionary budget authority of at least $100 million compared to the FY2004 amount. Viewing this list by itself should be done with caution, since the relative impact of a $100 million funding change to a $500 million program (a 20% increase or decrease) is greater than a $100 million change to a $5 billion program (a 2% increase or decrease). Later in this report, the discussions of budgets for individual departments include tables to compare the FY2005 request with the FY2004 funding for many of the major programs in the L-HHS-ED bill. Overall, $142.9 billion in discretionary appropriations at the program level was requested for L-HHS-ED for FY2005, a 2.2% increase over the comparable FY2004 amount of $139.8 billion. For Department of Labor (DOL) programs, the FY2005 request included an increase of $181 million for job training programs authorized by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). A WIA Community College Initiative was proposed at $250 million, and two other initiatives totaled $90 million; funding for existing WIA programs would be reduced by $159 million. Overall, $12.0 billion in FY2005 discretionary appropriations was requested for DOL, a 1.7% increase compared to the FY2004 amount of $11.8 billion. For Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) programs, the request proposed an increase of $727 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). An additional $219 million was proposed for Community Health Centers. Other increases included an additional $195 million for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), $109 million for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Program Management, $112 million for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), $169 million for Head Start, $112 million for Abstinence Education, and $101 million for the Safe and Stable Families discretionary activities. Requested decreases included reductions of $283 million for Health Professions other than nursing, $153 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and $147 million for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG). The request would eliminate the $372 million Health Care-related Facilities and Activities program. Overall, $63.2 billion in FY2005 discretionary appropriations was requested for HHS, a 1.6% increase over the FY2004 amount of $62.2 billion.