House OKs cuts to labor, health, education programs

In practice, that translates to an 84 percent cut — from $300 million down to $47 million — in training programs for doctors and nurses, and $806 million in cuts to Bush's No Child Left Behind education initiative, a more than 3 percent drop. Grants for local community-action agencies that help the poor would be cut in half, to $320 million.

The National Institutes of Health, whose budget has doubled in recent years, would be held to a less than 1 percent increase. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would absorb a 5 percent cut from current funding.

In a high-profile vote Thursday, lawmakers turned back an effort to slash federal public broadcasting subsidies by $100 million, demonstrating the enduring political strength of the Public Broadcasting Service, whose supporters rallied behind popular programs such as "Sesame Street."

PBS and National Public Radio benefited from a nationwide lobbying effort. But no such national constituency exists for dozens of lower-profile programs that would be cut by the measure.

On Friday, the House also voted 219-185 to go on record against a Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation agreement with United Airlines letting United dump its employee-pension plans and their $9.8 billion shortfall on the PBGC, which could mean pension cuts of 25 percent to 50 percent for more than 120,000 United workers and retirees.

United says the move is required to emerge from bankruptcy and supporters of the airline said that without the pension relief, 62,000 United employees could lose their jobs.