mr. speaker , i rise in support of this conference report funding the departments of labor , health , education , and other agencies . 
while not a perfect bill , it is a good bill . 
it represents another step in this year 's appropriation cycle for fiscal responsibility . 
earlier this year , congress passed a budget . 
it was a tough budget that reflected the difficult financial times we face . 
it reined in spending on non-security activities for the first time in a generation . 
this is not an easy task . 
it is tough to cut the budget . 
the conference report before us today $ 142.5 billion . 
this is precisely the house-passed level , and nearly a half a billion dollars less than last year . 
to arrive at this number , the conferees had to work hard to reduce the levels proposed by the other body that were $ 2.6 billion higher than the accounts in the house-passed bill . 
the conference report before us today does not include emergency spending designations or funding gimmicks as proposed by the other body . 
the bill before us is lean . 
it prioritizes spending , contains some real cuts , and provides some resources for high priority programs . 
the bill proposes to terminate 29 programs , including 20 of the 50 programs proposed for termination in the bill that originally passed in our chamber . 
other programs proposed for termination by the house are cut substantially from last year 's level . 
while reducing the overall size of the bill from last year , the house conferees were able to increase funding in critical area , such as pell grants , special education , and low income heating assistance and bioterrorism preparedness . 
for community health centers , the final conference agreement provides $ 1.8 billion , $ 66 million more than last year . 
the conference report includes $ 100 million for a teacher incentive fund that will be a pilot program helping reward teachers with the incentives to boost the quality of our education . 
generally , the increases in the conference report are n't big enough for our democratic friends but they reflect our effort to do the best we could with the limited resources we had available . 
i urge my colleagues to support the conference report . 
