From: Heather Valentine
Subject: House Labor/HHS/Education Subcommittee Votes to Restore Funding to ALL TRIO Programs
Date: 6/9/2005
Today the House Labor/HHS/Education Subcommittee voted to restore funding to ALL TRIO programs. Thank you all for your continued efforts on behalf of the programs. I have included a story from today's Congress Daily that highlights the Labor/HHS/Education bill.
From today's Congress Daily...
House Labor-HHS Bill Highlights Tight Fiscal Year Ahead
The budget crunch in social services spending in the next fiscal year will be on display today, as the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee takes up a $142.5 billion measure that cuts more than $1 billion from program levels contained in the FY05 bill.
Technically, the cut is only about $163 million, as appropriators included about $890 million requested for the 2003 Medicare prescription drug law's startup costs, which is most of what the White House wanted. But those funds come out of the hide of other domestic programs, and after factoring in additional cuts, the overall reduction from FY05 is closer to $1.25 billion.
In keeping with a White House pledge to get rid of unwanted programs, House appropriators are proposing to terminate 48 federal programs, which would save an estimated $2.3 billion. At the same time, appropriators did not include new program requests, such as $80 million for an Office of Medicare Appeals, as authorized by the 2003 law.
Total HHS and Labor Department funds would be cut by about $1 billion from last year's levels, while only the Education Department is spared the budget ax. House appropriators actually increased the agency's budget by $118 million over last year and $476 million over the administration's request to $57.7 billion, marking a 50 percent increase over the last five years.
Pell Grants for undergraduate students would receive a $1 billion increase over last year to $13.4 billion -- slightly more than the president's request -- enough to support a maximum Pell Grant of $4,100. That is shy of the administration's goal of a maximum $4,150 Pell Grant in FY06, which is part of a legislative proposal to be handled by the authorizing committees.
There is also $4.3 billion in mandatory funds to pay off the Pell Grant shortfall, as proposed by the White House and congressional budget resolution.
Special education grants would increase by about $150 million over last year, but are cut about $500 million from the president's request, to $10.7 billion. Title I education grants for disadvantaged children are also trimmed by a half-billion from the White House request, but would receive a slight increase, about $100 million, over last year for a $12.7 billion total.
The measure rejects proposed cuts to TRIO programs for disadvantaged students, restoring them to last year's level of $837 million, rejects proposed termination of the GEAR UP undergraduate counseling program, and continues increases for abstinence education and faith-based programs.
The HHS Department, representing the largest portion of the bill's discretionary budget, would be funded at about $63.2 billion, or $632 million below last year, slightly deeper than proposed by the White House.
The National Institutes of Health would see a 1 percent increase over last year, to $28.5 billion, largely tracking the administration request, a prospect likely to cause clashes with Senate appropriators.
That total is far below what universities and other stakeholders argue is enough to maintain purchasing power for biomedical research.
The Centers for Disease Control would be cut $295 million from last year, to $6.1 billion, a $181 million increase above the request, and community health centers would see a $100 million increase to $1.8 billion, which is $200 million shy of the White House's request.
Labor Department programs would be cut about $400 million from last year, to about $11.6 billion, not quite as deep as the administration request, and House appropriators nicked about $100 million from last year's Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds, slightly more than the White House.
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which enjoys broad bipartisan support, would be trimmed about $200 million from last year, to nearly $2 billion. While base funding is about $100 million over last year, the FY05 omnibus included $300 million in emergency LIHEAP funds, which did not count against budget caps.