Appropriations bills move slowly… again
This seems to be the story every year at this time. The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, and Congress has not passed all the necessary appropriations bills to fund government operations. Instead, it has passed a continuing resolution through Oct. 31 in hopes of completing work on the remainder of the bills.
As of this writing, Congress had passed the Agriculture, Energy and Water, Homeland Security, and Legislative Branch appropriations bills, and the president has signed the Legislative Branch, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Energy and Water bills.
Agriculture
President Obama signed the FY10 Agriculture Appropriations bill, H.R. 2997, Oct. 21. This is the first stand alone agriculture appropriations bill to reach the president’s desk in nearly 10 years.
H.R. 2997 provides $23.3 billion in discretionary spending, a $2.7 billion increase above the FY09 enacted level and $325 million above the Obama administration’s request. Mandatory spending programs received $97.83 billion, a boost of $10 billion above FY09.
NACo priority programs in the areas of rural development, nutrition and food safety fare well under the conference agreement. USDA Rural Development received $2.98 billion, $246 million above FY09. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) received the biggest boost in mandatory funding at $58.25 billion, which is $4.31 billion higher than in FY09. The bill fully funds USDA’s Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) program, which is a NACo food safety priority.
Commerce-Justice-Science
Senate action on the 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill (H.R. 2847) remains stalled due primarily to an amendment proposed by Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah). The amendment would prohibit the use of any federal funds “for collection of census data that does not include questions regarding United States citizenship and immigration status.” On Oct. 13, proponents of the bill were unable to garner the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture and end debate on the bill.
Meanwhile in FY10, the House approved annual funding for the Byrne Justice Administration Grant (JAG) program at $519 million while the Senate Appropriations Committee marked it at $510 million. In FY09, Byrne JAG received a regular appropriation of $546 million (not counting the stimulus).
Juvenile Justice programs would receive $385 million under the House bill and $407 million from the Senate committee.
The Second Chance Act to lower recidivism in county jails and state prisons is funded at $100 million in the House bill and $50 million in the Senate Appropriations Committee bill. In FY09, the new program received $25 million.
Despite the administration’s request to eliminate the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), the House included $400 million, the same funding as FY09, while the Senate Appropriations Committee would drop the amount to $228 million in FY10.
Also in FY10 under the general COPS program category, the House proposed $810 million while the Senate Appropriations Committee set funding at $659 million. This total includes line items for Meth Hot Spots, forensic sciences (including coroners and medical examiners), DNA analysis and Technology and Interoperability Grants among other categories.
Finally, Violence Against Women Programs was proposed by the House at $407 million and by the Senate Appropriations Committee at $435 million.
Homeland Security
Final appropriations legislation, signed by the president last week, provides a total of $44.1 billion for operations and activities that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will manage in FY10, and is more than 6.6 percent higher than the money appropriated in FY09.
Most importantly, the final legislation provides a slight increase in funding for state and local first responder assistance programs. Counties continue to use these funds to purchase specialized equipment and to prepare, prevent and respond to future all-hazard events. Additionally, these assistance programs provide funding to counties for technical assistance and disaster-related training and exercises.
Some specific highlights in the final bill include:
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$713 million for DHS’ State Homeland Security Grant Program ($713 million enacted in FY09)
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$650 million for DHS’ Urban Area Security Initiative ($629 million enacted in FY09)
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$459 million for competitive grants to state and local law enforcement (DHS’ Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Grant Program was consolidated several years ago, but Congress enacted $447 million for this purpose in FY09)
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$810 million for FIRE Grants of which $420 million is proposed for grants for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program and $390 million is proposed for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program ($775 million enacted in FY09) and
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$340 million for the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) program ($315 million enacted in FY09).
The measure also provides funding for the Disaster Relief Fund ($1.6 billion), Port Security Grants ($300 million), Public Transportation Grants ($300 million), FEMA’s Flood Map Modernization Fund ($220 million), FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program ($200 million), FEMA’s Predisaster Mitigation Grants ($100 million), Interoperable Communication Grants ($50 million), Metropolitan Medical Response System ($41 million), Emergency Operations Center Grants ($60 million) and DHS’ Citizen Corp Program ($13 million).
President Obama has signed the legislation.
Labor-HHS-Education
The full House approved its appropriations bill July 24. The Senate Appropriations Committee bill passed July 30 but there hasn’t been a Senate floor vote yet. Key funding levels in the two bills include:
Labor – $2.97 billion for state grants for job training, under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) ; $1.7 billion for Job Corps, $105 million for YouthBuild, $40 million for the Transitional Jobs program and another $40 million for the Green Jobs Innovation Fund. These figures are the same for both bills.
Health – $2.2 billion for Community Health Centers in the House and $2.19 billion in the Senate; $6.7 billion for Public Health Activities administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the House and $6.8 billion in the Senate; $3.6 billion for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in the House and $3.56 billion in the Senate.
Human Services – $5.1 billion in both bills for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, better known as LIHEAP; $7.2 billion in both bills for Head Start; $371 million in the House and $361 million in the Senate for the Older Americans Act’s Home and Community Services programs.
Education – $15.93 billion in the House and $15.89 billion in the Senate for Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and $12.6 billion in both bills for special education.
Energy and Water
The president has signed the FY10 Energy-Water Appropriations bill.
The $33.5 billion total is $200 million above FY09 enacted levels. The Department of Energy (DOE) would receive $27.1 billion, with the caveat that $2.2 billion be used toward renewable energy and energy efficiency. The Army Corps of Engineers receives $5.4 billion. This is $43 million over FY09 with $2.4 billion is to be used toward the maintenance backlog that exists. The rest of the money is to be used for construction projects.
Interior-Environment
The House and Senate have both passed versions of the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill. On Sept. 24, the Senate passed the FY10 Interior-Environment Appropriations bill (H.R. 2996) which includes $5.29 billion for the USDA Forest Service; $1.61 billion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and $1.14 billion for the Bureau of Land Management.
The Senate-passed bill provides modest increases above the House-passed bill for both the USDA Forest Service and Department of Interior (DOI) land management agencies.
This legislation includes $3.56 billion for wildland fire (non-emergency) programs for the USDA Forest Service and Interior, an increase of $576 million from FY09 levels. Funding includes $1.86 billion for fire suppression. Hazardous fuels reduction programs were increased to $556 million — a 4 percent increase from FY09.
The bill also includes a section to establish a new federal fund specifically for suppression of catastrophic wildland fires, which will move the nation towards a more sustainable suppression funding mechanism. The so-called “FLAME Fund” would reduce depletion of other agency programs to pay for fire suppression and provide a more established funding source than the current emergency supplemental funding.
The Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, which has historically received annual appropriations through the Interior bill, was modified in 2008 as a mandatory entitlement program. The program is fully funded through FY12.
The Senate bill funded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at $10.2 billion for FY10. The House funded EPA at $10.46 billion. EPA was funded at $7.6 billion in FY09.
One of the winners in both House and Senate bills was water/wastewater infrastructure funding projects. The Senate allotted $3.63 billion total for Clean Water/Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs. This includes $2.1 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF) program and $1.39 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (DWSRF) program.
The House-passed bill, on the other hand, includes a total of $3.9 billion in clean drinking water and wastewater improvements. That breaks down to $2.3 billion for the CWSRF; $1.4 billion for the DWSRF; and $160 million for direct grants to communities for water infrastructure.
Another winner in the FY10 Interior Appropriations bill was climate change programs. The Senate bill allotted money for a variety of programs that address climate change. This includes $21 million to support efforts to meet an Energy and Independence Security Act requirement, which states that the U.S. produce 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022.
It also includes $10 million for a new grant program at EPA to help local communities cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Senate bill also fully funds the greenhouse gas reporting rule that was announced recently by the EPA.
The House bill also allotted money to address climate change. The state and local air grant program is slated to receive $227 million, and $60 million was allotted for Diesel Emission Reduction Act grants.
The president signed the bill after House-Senate conferences reconciled their differences.
Transportation-Housing & Urban Development
Both the Senate and House have passed their respective appropriations bills, but the bills have not yet been reconciled in conference committee.
The housing component of the Senate bill provides $45.8 billion and primarily includes increases for housing-related programs for FY10. The Senate includes nearly $4 billion for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) formula grant program — a $350 million increase above the current level, but below the House-passed $4.1 billion and the Obama administration’s FY10 request. The Senate bill allots $1.83 billion for the HOME Investment Partnership program, level-funding versus the House passed increase to $2 billion.
It provides $18.1 billion for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, similar to the House level, and is $1 billion above the FY09. The Senate bill also includes $1.87 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants similar to the House-passed amount. The Senate bill provides $250 million for the Obama administration’s new Choice Neighborhoods program, which builds upon the HOPE VI program’s success in revitalizing distressed public housing. The House instead designated $250 million for the current HOPE VI program.
The Senate includes $150 million for the Sustainable Communities Initiative, similar to the House. This new administration proposal aims to improve regional efforts in housing, transportation and environmental planning. Of this amount, $100 million would be available to communities for planning grants.
Both bills include $25 million for a Rural Innovation Fund to address concentrations of distressed rural housing and $25 million to continue HUD’s partnership with historically black colleges and universities.
The House bill provides $25 million for brownfields redevelopment, $15 million above FY09 level. Neither the Senate version nor the Obama administration request included new funding for brownfields. Both the House and Senate bills include $275 million for the Section 108 loan guarantee program under CDBG.
The Senate bill includes a $100 million for housing counseling, the same level as the Obama administration request and $30 million above the House amount. The Senate bill funds an Energy Innovation Fund at $75 million, $25 million less than the budget request, and $25 million above the House allowance. The funding is intended to promote local initiatives that can be replicated in cost-saving energy retrofits of existing housing.
The Federal Highway Program is funded at approximately $41 billion in both bills, and the Federal Transit Program funded at $11 billion in both bills. The Airport Improvement Program is funded in both the Senate and House bills at $3.51 billion, which is the same level that the program has been funded at for the past five years and the same as the House bill.
Essential Air Service gets a big increase over current funding, going from $123 million to $175 million in both bills. Amtrak is funded at $1.48 billion, about the same levels in both the Senate and House measures. However, there is $1.2 billion for intercity and high-speed rail in the Senate bill as compared to $4 billion in the House bill. An addition to the traditional transportation appropriations in the Senate bill, but not in the House bill, is $1.1 billion for grants to support significant transportation projects, similar to what was in the stimulus bill, which carries a requirement that at least $250 million of these funds be spent in rural communities.
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