HELENA — House Republican leaders said Friday they have found a way to break the logjam over the human services budget by effectively freezing it and cutting in half the federal money for family planning.

Without debate, the House Appropriations Committee quickly approved that amendment on an 11-8 vote. All Republicans supported it, while all Democrats opposed it.

The House is expected to debate the newly amended version of House Bill 808 on Saturday.

“I do have the votes,” said House Majority Leader Michael Lange, R-Billings.

The House has been stalemated on this budget since March 15, with Republicans failing three times to muster the 51 votes to pass it. Republicans outnumber Democrats 50-49. That leaves Rep. Rick Jore, the ultraconservative Constitution Party member, playing a decisive role.

Under the amendment, the budget for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services would be $2.83 billion in total funds for the next two years, which is essentially the same as the current two-year budget. None of the $227 million of new programs recommended by Gov. Brian Schweitzer and endorsed by a bipartisan House-Senate appropriations subcommittee are funded.

In addition, the amended bill would not include increased spending for health care providers, such as doctors, and direct-care workers, such as nursing home workers, as the subcommittee had recommended.

If Republicans can lure back their own five budget dissenters, including House Speaker Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, and win over Jore, they will be able to pass HB808 without needing any Democratic votes.

Democrats have lined up united against all eight budget bills and every amendment because they oppose the Republican plan to split the traditional single budget bill into eight measures.

Although Jore hadn’t seen the amendment yet Friday, he sounded amenable.

“If the Republicans are willing to work with me to lower that (federal) spending as significantly as possible and withdraw as much money used for family planning purposes, I will consider the amendment,” Jore said.

He had earlier said he would oppose all federal spending for human services and education because he considers it unconstitutional. However, he voted for the education budget with federal spending, but so far has opposed the human services budget.

The GOP amendment would cut the federal money spent on state family planning programs to $2.3 million for the next two years, or half of the $4.6 million being spent during this current two-year budget.

Jore said he opposes this spending because it pays for abortions and morning-after pills.

However, Stacey Anderson, public affairs director of Planned Parenthood of Montana, said not one cent of federal money is spent by family planning clinics on abortions or morning-after pills. Federal law prohibits it, she said.

Anderson predicted the amendment, if it holds, could shut down some of the 15 family planning clinics and satellite offices in 28 communities. These clinics serve 30,000 people a year, mostly women, with 56 percent qualifying for free services and 70 percent uninsured and at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, she said.

Over in the Senate, the Finance and Claims Committee began work Friday on four budget bills from the House.

Schweitzer’s budget director, David Ewer, opposed all four House-passed bills as inadequate.

Insisting the Schweitzer budget recommendations were “tight,” Ewer said it uses some of the estimated $1 billion projected surplus to restore funding to programs cut when the economy was suffering, sets up a rainy day fund, provides property-tax relief and pays cash for building projects instead of issuing bonds.

“We submit to you that difference (between what Schweitzer proposed and the House passed) will dramatically impact the level of public safety, public health and public education,” Ewer said.

Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, a former state budget director under Democratic and Republican directors, sharply disputed Ewer’s characterization of the budget.

“The kinds of increase that we’re talking about in this budget are so extraordinary that I can’t even imagine you wouldn’t be more accepting of the adjustments that were made,” Lewis said. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

Lewis said he doubted whether any state in the country was proposing such hefty budget increases as Montana.

“Are you really sure you can’t get the job done with these (House-passed) increases?” Lewis asked.

Ewer was especially concerned over the House changes in the Department of Corrections’ budget. The administration recommended a budget based on a 7.5 percent a year growth in prison populations, but the House provided 4 percent growth rates.

“This bill is woefully inadequate,” Ewer said.

Under questioning, Rep. Bill Beck, R-Whitefish, said the growth rate of 4-5 percent was decided by House Republican leadership and him.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch was highly critical of the budget set by the House for her agency and K-12 education.

“House Bill 809 is not good for public education,” she said, decrying its lack of funding for full-day kindergarten and the cuts to the Office of Public Instruction budget.