federal funds head home

About $1.3 million for Los Angeles social programs won a thumbs-up today from the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The bill funding the Department of Labor and Health and Human Services includes:
- $500,000 for the Southwest Museum of the American Indian at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles for its Native American learning lab.
- $250,000 for L.A.’s BEST after school enrichment program.
- $200,000 for Children United Nations foster child mentoring programs.
- $100,000 for Educating Young Minds
- $100,000 for the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art museum for education and outreach.

The measure still has a long way to go before it reaches President Bush’s desk and could face resistance from the White House for broader provisions in the bill substantially expanding federally-funded stem cell research.

The bill makes existing stem cell lines derived before June 15, 2007 eligible for research. Bush has limited the number of eligible lines to those derived before August 9, 2001.