WASHINGTON - Congressional negotiators restored some funding for rural health care that had been cut from a federal spending bill, prompting a split reaction Tuesday among Western Republicans.

Some celebrated the move, while others deplored the remaining cuts.

The negotiators added back about $60 million for rural health care programs, plus about $30 million for medical training and educational programs, to the $142.5 billion spending bill that will fund the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services for 2006.

The bill originally contained cuts to rural health programs totaling $200 million, meaning that 70 percent of the cuts remain, said Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo.

"It's incredibly shortsighted to cut to the core our most basic rural health funding," Thomas said. "I'll keep fighting to put rural states on equal footing with our urban counterparts. We have a long way to go to make our health care system both affordable and accessible. These cuts don't help."

But U.S. Reps. Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont., and Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., who both voted for the bill when it contained the cuts, welcomed the restoration of some funds.

Cubin's vote for the bill containing the cuts has drawn criticism from Democrats and advocates for the poor. She issued a press release Tuesday touting the restoration of funding, which she noted includes $28.5 million for rural health outreach grants and $29 million for area health education centers.

"This funding is critical to a rural state like Wyoming," Cubin said in the statement. "Congress needs to recognize that rural Wyoming is a far different place than the urban East Coast. Too many people have suffered a loss of access to care because of the challenges associated with practicing medicine in a rural state like Wyoming."

The Senate originally passed a bill containing full funding for rural health care, but the House version made the cuts. Negotiators from the two chambers put together a compromise that kept the cuts, but the full House voted it down last month, in part because rural lawmakers were unhappy with it. After the unusual action by the House in rejecting the conference bill, negotiators forged a new compromise this week that restored some of the funding.

The House is expected to vote on the new bill as soon as today, and the Senate will take it up after the House votes. As with the last bill, Democrats say it does not provide enough money for health care, education and jobs.

According to Thomas' office, the $137 million in cuts to rural health programs include an 85 percent cut to the Access to Emergency Devices program and elimination of funding for the Geriatric Education Centers, Health Education Training Centers, the Quentin Burdick Rural Interdisciplinary Training grants, Healthy Community Access Program grants and the Rural Emergency Medical Services program.

"As rural EMS squads are forced to close, rural residents and those visiting our state may be left without access to emergency services," Thomas said. "This is downright dangerous as communities are finding it difficult to maintain a service prepared to respond to emergencies and moreover, to a major public health problem."