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  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 .  