The subject of this vote was final passage of the 2004 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill which provided federal funding for a wide range of labor protections, health and human services, and education initiatives. Progressives voted against the measure for two main reasons. First, the spending bill failed to fully-fund public schools at the level previously authorized by Congress. In fact, Progressives noted, the bill fails to provide the level of funding set forth in President Bush's 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. Second, the bill contains two provisions which, in their view, would seriously weaken labor and health protections for workers. One of those provisions would prevent certain workers from receiving overtime pay even if they worked in excess of forty hours in a workweek. The other provision would weaken health protections for miners by imposing a fourfold increase in the maximum allowable level of carcinogenic coal dust in mine shafts. During a previous debate on the maximum allowable level of coal dust in mine shafts (see Roll Call Vote #349), Congressman Rahall presented data which showed that 55,000 miners had perished from black lung disease between 1969 and 1990 and that the disease has claimed an average of 1,400 lives each year from 1990 to 2003. Relaxing regulations on the maximum allowable amount of coal dust in mine shafts, Progressives argued, would cause even more deaths by black lung disease. Despite unanimous opposition from Democrats, the appropriations bill was enacted on a vote of 215-208.