August 2006
Appropriations
Even though the new fiscal
year begins on October 1st, Congress failed to send any of the annual appropriations bills to the President for
his signature before the August recess. The House has passed all but one (Labor,
Health, Human Services, and Education) of its appropriations bills, but these will still have to go to conference with the
Senate bills, only one of which has made it to the Senate so far. With a busy
September schedule and election pressures, most advocates expect that the final budget decisions will be left until after
the elections. Congress will likely pass a continuing resolution some time before
the elections to keep programs at there current funding levels until the final appropriations bills are passed.
Labor-HHS
As in previous years, this
year’s Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill has proven to be one of the most contentious
in Congress because of the depth of the cuts to human services programs the President continues to push. The House Appropriations Committee passed its Labor-HHS bill back in June and although it provided roughly
$4 billion more in funding ($141.9 billion total) than the President’s budget, it still included a number of cuts (including
the Community Services Block Grant, Safe and Drug-Free Schools, employment and training programs, and mental health services)
and froze most human needs programs at current levels (Head Start, Child Care and Development Block Grant, Social Services
Block Grant, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and many others). In
a look at 72 programs or groups of programs within this appropriations bill, our colleagues at the Coalition on Human Needs
have found that 67 are cut below FY 2005 levels, taking inflation into account—when compared with FY2002 levels, many of the cuts are even more significant. The full House has yet to vote
on this bill because it contains an amendment to increase the minimum wage that the Republican leadership opposes. This amendment,
combined with the unpopularity of the cuts, will likely delay the vote until after the election.
In the Senate, the full Appropriations
Committee approved its Labor-HHS bill in late July with total funding set at $142.8 billion.
This is $900 million more than the House bill and roughly $5 billion more than the President’s request. However, it falls $2 billion short of the amount included in the Senate budget resolution and needed just to prevent cuts to critical programs. Among the programs cut
in the Senate Labor-HHS bill are employment and training services, Safe and Drug-Free Schools, and some child welfare programs. Most
other programs were flat-funded, which becomes a cut once inflation is taken into account.
Senator Harkin has indicated that he will introduce an amendment to increase funding by $2 billion when the bill comes
to the Senate floor, but it is unclear when the Senate vote will occur.
Housing
In June the House passed
its version of the Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development (TTHUD) Appropriations bill, rejecting many
of the cuts proposed by the President. The House bill included higher amounts
than the President requested for the Community Development Block Grant, Section 202 Housing for the Elderly and Section 811
Housing for People with Disabilities. The House bill, however, included cuts
to Public Housing and troubling language about the need to control costs in Section 8 and granting HUD even greater flexibility
to alter the program.
The Senate Appropriations
Committee passed its TTHUD Appropriations bill in late July, but the bill has not yet come to the Senate floor. Like the House bill, the Senate THHUD bill rejects the cuts proposed by the President and in some cases
(HOME, Public Housing, and CDBG) provides more funding than the House. More importantly,
the Senate bill includes language to change the flawed Section 8 funding formula that has caused the loss of thousands of
vouchers since 2004. In addition, the Senate bill rejects other harmful administrative
changes to tenant protection vouchers requested by the President and included in the House bill. The Senate bill may be brought to the floor sometime in September, but many advocates think it is unlikely
to be voted on until after the election.
VAWA and Juvenile Justice
As with other discretionary
programs, the President’s budget called for cuts to both Violence Against Women Act and juvenile justice programs. The President recommended the elimination of the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant
(JABG) and a 50% reduction in the Title V Delinquency Prevention Program, but both the House and Senate rejected these cuts
and funded the programs at last year’s levels (note: Senate Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations bill has not been
voted on by the full Senate yet). In addition, although the President signed
VAWA reauthorization into law in January, his FY2007 budget included no funding for any of the new VAWA programs that VAWA
2005 authorized and included some small cuts to existing VAWA programs. During the House floor debate on its Science-State-Justice-Commerce
Appropriations bill, roughly $25 million was added to fund new VAWA programs, but the Senate bill provides only $5 million
in new funding (all for the Sexual Assault Services Program). Some VAWA programs
fall under the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill and unfortunately existing programs were flat-funded and none of the new housing
programs that VAWA 2005 created in the Department of Health and Human Services received any funding. For a full VAWA funding
chart and more information on VAWA programs, check out the National Network to End Domestic Violence's briefing book (PDF).
Budget “Reform” Bills Stall
Although the House did manage
to pass a bill (H.R. 4890) in June to grant the president line-item veto authority, efforts to bring a sunset commission bill
to the floor before the recess proved unsuccessful (for details about these proposals and the NAC’s objections to them,
see the June Budget Update). Sunset commissions are likely to return to the floor sometime in September,
but they will continue to face opposition from a growing number of advocates and skeptical members of the Appropriations Committee,
who do not want to see their authority over the congressional purse strings supplanted.
In the Senate, Senator Gregg
has conceded that his broad budget reform package, the so-called “Stop Over Spending Act”—S. 3521, has little
chance of passing this year. This sweeping legislation includes both line-item
veto and sunset commission proposals in addition to strict new budget caps and rules that would force deep cuts in programs. Senator Gregg has indicated that he is considering breaking the bill into a number
of pieces to vote on separately, beginning with the line-item veto, but it is unclear that even a more limited bill would
be able to draw enough support to overcome a likely filibuster. To read a response
to Sen. Gregg’s “SOS” bill from some members of the faith community, please click here.
Additional Resources
OMBWatch: Sunset Commission Resource Center
Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities: Analysis of Sen. Gregg’s Bill
House Passes, But Senate Rejects Another Attempt to Gut the Estate
Tax
In a cynical political move,
the House Republican leadership threw together a bill, dubbed the “trifecta,” right before the August recess that
coupled a drastic reduction of the estate tax with some more popular tax cuts and a much needed increase in the minimum wage. This bill essentially told minimum and low wage workers that the cost of their much
deserved raise was more deficit-raising tax breaks for the most affluent. The
House passed the bill (H.R. 5970) by a vote of 230-180 on July 29th, but the bill faced stronger opposition in the Senate. Fortunately, despite strong pressure from
business and wealthy interest groups, the “trifecta” bill failed on a procedural vote.
The National
Advocacy Center sent a letter to the Hill strongly opposing H.R. 5970 and urging Congress to support a clean increase in the minimum wage. More information on the
NAC’s position on the estate tax can be found here.
Additional Resources
Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities: Comparing the Minimum Wage and Estate Tax Proposals
America Magazine: Editorial on the Minimum Wage
