mr. speaker , i want to say back during the spring we went through our annual budget process . 
the budget committee has testimony from all sectors of society and the government who are affected by the budget . 
it is a good debate . 
in the final analysis , that budget came to the floor and after weeks and months of discussion and arm twisting , it passed by a vote of 214-212 . 
i may be wrong on this , i do not think any of the democrats voted for it . 
most of the democrats , i would say , are very consistent saying we should be spending more money and , therefore , they voted against it . 
but there are other democrats who are saying look at the deficit , look at this , look at that . 
boy , these republicans are spending too much . 
there is clearly a mixed signal here , and clearly some dissension in the democratic ranks . 
but when you pass a budget in the spring and it is passed by this body and the other body , then the subcommittees of appropriations have to follow that budget . 
that is what this does . 
sometimes making these decisions is very , very tough . 
this bill actually eliminates 29 lower-priority programs . 
one of the programs i am a supporter of , the national youth sports program , i like that program . 
they operated in savannah . 
but when you look at the context of some of the other programs and you realize this is run by the ncaa , the national collegiate athletic association , and they are the same people who put on the rose bowl , the rose bowl alone generates $ 30 million in revenue . 
perhaps they can replace the $ 18 million that congress is putting into it right now . 
there are ways to keep these programs alive even though the federal government is not picking up the tab for them . 
it is my hope on these 29 programs that are terminated , that the local , the state level will step in , the private sector will step in ; and a lot of what they are doing are duplicated in other programs . 
i have to say that these are very important . 
i have to say also , mr. speaker , that i had a lot of local programs that were eliminated . 
these are programs which i have worked very hard on over the years to try to get into this budget . 
those were the earmarks : memorial hospital in savannah , georgia ; st . 
joseph 's hospital in savannah , georgia ; a project for the city of moultrie ; the warner robbins aviation museum ; the civil rights museum in savannah , georgia ; and brunswick hospital . 
these were a lot of good programs that i personally hoped to get in , things that were within the budget that were doable . 
and yet in the end because of the legislative process , all earmarks had to be eliminated . 
i was not happy about that , but i understand . 
in the bigger picture of things , you have to do what the body can pass , what there are votes for . 
in this case , where did the money go ? 
it went to community health clinics . 
it goes to medicare modernization and medical research . 
incidentally , we talk about the nih . 
the funding for the nih has doubled under republican leadership under a commitment made by the former speaker , mr. gingrich . 
i have to say , i am a little disappointed in what we have gotten for our money . 
i have not seen a plethora of medical solutions and new devices and vaccines and all kinds of other research that i had hoped doubling the nih budget would give us . 
nonetheless , nih still gets an increase under this bill . 
the bill also restores community service block grants . 
lots of things like the job corps program are funded in this bill . 
despite its tightness in some areas , mr. regula xz4003340 has worked with the committee to put on what i think is a solidly balanced bill and face the economic realities of today with today 's budget . 
