A House Appropriations subcommittee Friday endorsed a massive fiscal 2010 spending bill for labor, health and education programs that omits a longstanding ban on funding for needle-exchange programs.

The draft Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, approved by voice vote, would provide $160.7 billion in discretionary spending, $52 million less than Obama requested and $5.6 billion more than enacted last year.

Republicans were upset that the bill would drop the current ban on using federal funds in the bill for needle-exchange programs, which are designed to reduce the transmission of AIDS and other diseases among drug users. But Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey , D-Wis., said science has shown that needle exchange programs, when coupled with comprehensive prevention strategies, can reduce the rate of HIV infections and do not promote drug use.

“The judgment we make in this bill is that it is time to lift this ban and let state and local jurisdictions determine if they want to pursue this approach,” Obey said.

The draft bill also continues Democrats’ slow march away from abstinence-only sex education, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., has said she wants to eliminate completely.

Republicans complained that the bill would do away with funding for abstinence-only programs in favor of comprehensive sex education. The measure would provide $114.5 million for a new “teenage pregnancy prevention initiative” aimed at reducing teen pregnancies through “evidence-based and other approaches, such as abstinence.”

Abstinence-only education is a mainstay of social conservatives, who believe teaching young people multiple options — such as birth control or safe sex practices — is simply encouraging bad behavior.

The bill does continue several policy riders prohibiting federal money from being used to fund abortions, as well as continuing restrictions on funding for human embryo research.