 |
Overview
On February 7, 2005, President Bush released his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06 = School Year 2006-07). The proposed budget would cut or eliminate around 150 domestic discretionary programs, including programs in the areas of education, health, human services, environmental protection, and housing. Medicaid, nutrition programs, and childcare would also see significant cuts. Many other programs would be frozen at the FY05 level; however, a freeze in federal budget terms equals a cut, since a freeze does not allow even for an adjustment for inflation. The bottom line is that the President's proposal would allow defense spending to grow by $42.4 billion between FY05 (current fiscal year) to FY07, while non-defense discretionary spending would be cut by $300 million over the same period.
Specific Programs
Following are some specifics from the President's budget proposal.
- Education and Other Children's Programs: For the first time in a decade, the President's proposal includes a cut in total spending for education.
- Forty-eight programs would be terminated, including Perkins vocational education grants (- $1.3 billion), Safe and Drug-Free Schools state grants (- $437 million), Even Start (- $225 million), and other important support programs such as the School Counseling Program, School Dropout Prevention, Smaller Learning Communities, and the Gifted and Talented program. Also slated for elimination are a number of programs that prepare low-income students for college, including TRIO programs and GEAR UP, and the Perkins student loan program. Also, the higher education Demonstration Projects for Students with Disabilities would be terminated.
- The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act State Grants would receive an increase of $500 million. However, funding for programs for infants and toddlers and preschoolers with disabilities would be frozen. The State Personnel Development Grants would receive no new funding, while other national programs including technical assistance and dissemination and technology and media would see decreases in funding.
- Title I compensatory education programs would receive an increase of $602 million. However, other programs under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), such as Early Reading First and Reading First, would be frozen.
- The President has also proposed a new high school initiative, for which he has requested $1.5 billion. This would include expanding the current NCLB assessment requirements into high school.
- Head Start would be frozen, with an estimated 25,000 children possibly losing Head Start and Early Head Start services in the next year.
- The Child Care & Development Block Grant would also be frozen. In fiscal years 2003-04, 200,000 children lost childcare assistance. The proposed FY06 freeze is estimated to cut childcare assistance to another 300,000 children.
- Job Training and Literacy:
- Assistive technology grant programs would be terminated (- $25.7 million), while the Alternative Financing Program, providing loans to individuals with disabilities to acquire assistive technology, would receive an increase (+ $11 million)
- The vocational rehabilitation state grant program would receive a small increase of $84.3 million. The VR demonstration and training programs to support projects that expand and improve provision of rehab services would be decreased (- $19 million).
- Adult training programs in the Department of Labor would be cut by $329 million. In addition, adult education and family literacy programs would be cut by $362 million, or a 62% decrease in funding.
- The $637 million Community Services Block Grant, which provides job training, would also be eliminated.
- Health and Human Services:
- Medicaid funding would be cut by a net $45 billion over 10 years, which by 2010, is projected to equal a loss of health care for 1.8 million children or 345,000 senior citizens.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be cut by approximately $500 million.
- The National Institutes of Health, which last year completed a five-year doubling of its budget, would receive a $196 million increase, or 0.7 percent, over last year.
- Juvenile Justice: Programs in this category would, overall, be cut by 46%. Major cuts are proposed for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and Title V Local Delinquency Prevention.
Budget Process
Remember that the President's budget proposal is just the first step in a long process to pass a final budget. The next step in the process is passage of a Budget Resolution. The Budget Resolution includes the total amount available for discretionary spending and a non-binding statement of Congress's spending priorities.
After the Budget Resolution is passed, each appropriations subcommittee receives a specific allocation. The subcommittee's responsibility is to allocate its funds among the various programs within its jurisdiction. Most of the programs of concern to members of LDA are under the Subcommittee on Labor-Health and Human Services-Education.
Finally, after all the subcommittee bills are passed, a final appropriations bill is considered. The federal fiscal year ends on September 30, although for the past several years, Congress has not passed an appropriations bill by that date. |
|
