"Out of the Spotlight" Posting for February 10, 2010
There are winners and losers in
every budget, and President Obama’s proposed federal 2011 budget, released this
month, is no exception. What’s most remarkable, however, about the
President’s proposal is that low-income kids and families stand out as a clear
priority. Wherever you look in his budget document, you see that he has
worked hard to put the poor and disadvantaged near the top of his agenda.
We’ve been following federal budgets for some 40 years, and this is one of the
strongest attempts we’ve seen from any president, of either party, to propose
spending priorities that would do much to reduce poverty and promote
opportunity.
Even more remarkable, he proposes to
do this within a very austere spending plan. President Obama has proposed
a freeze on domestic non-security discretionary programs. However, within that
freeze, he has protected and improved many critical low-income programs. The priorities in the President’s budget
work to address both his short-term goal of strengthening the economy and
creating jobs, while helping those hardest hit by the downturn, as well as his
longer-term goal of bringing the deficit down and restoring fiscal
responsibility.
We expect a vigorous, engaging
debate about what this budget accomplishes for low-income families, and what
still needs to be done, but here are major highlights of the proposals that
would do the most to cut poverty and promote opportunity:
- For
Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization, the budget proposes $10 billion over
ten years in additional funding. According to the budget, the additional
investments will be “aimed at ending childhood hunger, reducing childhood
obesity, and improving the diets of children, and raising program performance
to better serve our children.”
- The President also projects spending at
nearly $57.2 billion for SNAP/Food Stamps, an increase of nearly $7.6 billion
over FY 2010. The requested level would continue American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act provisions, which began boosting SNAP/Food Stamp benefits in
2009, as well as anticipated increases in program participation.
- For continued state fiscal
relief, the President proposes a six-month extension of Medicaid relief – some
$25 billon – to states in order to save and create new jobs, to protect health
care coverage, and to minimize devastating budget cuts that states will
otherwise be forced to impose.
- The budget proposal would make the
improvements enacted in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to
the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American
Opportunity Tax Credit permanent. In addition, the President proposes to make
the savers’ credit for low-income families refundable. Together, these credits will account for $1.7
billion in new spending for 2011 and $13 billion in new spending for 2012.
- Child care for low-income
working families would also get a boost with an increase of $1.6 billion per
year for the Child Care Development Block Grant.
- The budget would extend the
current Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund
authorized under ARRA for one year – through September 2011 – and would
increase the federal share for states to create subsidized jobs from 80 percent
to 100 percent. Under this proposal,
states would get another $2.5 billion targeted to very low-income families and
kids.
- The President’s proposal would
increase Head Start by nearly $1 billion, continuing the Head Start funding
appropriated in ARRA.
- It
provides an additional $3.3
billion resources and a new funding
trigger for Energy Assistance to Low-Income Families (LIHEAP), so that
any time there is a spike in energy costs or a significant increase in economic
hardship, the LIHEAP budget will automatically increase to meet rising
demands. The Administration notes that
they expect the trigger to provide roughly $2 billion in additional assistance
in 2011 and $6.5 billion over 10 years.
- He has requested a total of $321
million through the Departments of Education and Labor to establish a new
“Partnership for Workforce Innovation.” The initiative would permit the
agencies to coordinate competitive grants to states and localities to improve
services, particularly for disadvantaged workers, and to support innovative
workforce activities such as sector partnerships.
- The
budget also proposes $85 million for the Green Jobs Innovation Fund, which
supports training to prepare workers for careers in the energy efficiency and
clean energy sectors, as described in the Green Jobs Act of 2007. This
represents a $45 million increase over FY 2010 funding levels. Department of
Labor anticipates that these funds would build on the “green jobs” grants
included in the recovery act. Also in the
DOL budget, there’s $46.6 million for Pilots, Demonstrations, and Research,
with $40 million reserved for transitional jobs.
- Highlights of the HUD budget
include $250 million for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative; $150 million for
Sustainable Communities;$150 million for a new Catalytic Investment Competition
program; a major new initiative to preserve public and assisted housing; a new
demonstration that will combine 10,000 new vouchers with supportive services
for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness; an increase
of $1.3 billion for housing vouchers (to ensure full renewal of assistance for
the 2.1 million low-income families now using vouchers); and $1 billion for the
Housing Trust Fund.
- The President proposes to move
his highly anticipated Promise Neighborhoods initiative into operation,
increasing funding from $10 million in planning grants during 2010 to a
whopping $210 million for next year.
- The Social Innovation Fund,
appropriated at $50 million in 2010, would be increased to $60 million for
2011, allowing the Corporation for National and Community Service to conduct
another round of awards for poverty-reduction initiatives.
- There’s $50 million in the
budget to help states adopt paid sick leave and $500 million to support for
fatherhood and healthy marriage through a Fatherhood, Marriage, and Families
Innovation Fund.
- For
low-income post-secondary education the budget requests a total of $34.8
billion to provide Pell Grants to nearly 9 million students in the 2011‐12 award year, with a projected maximum
award of $5,710. This represents an increase of more than $14 billion over
current FY 2010 appropriations.
- Last, but hardly least, the
President requests money for overhauling the federal poverty measure! In the Department of Commerce budget, there’s
a $5 million initiative to allow the Census Bureau to work with the Bureau of
Labor Statistics to supplement the official poverty measure with annual
alternative poverty measures. At long
last, it looks like there is real movement toward revamping the measure!
Overall, kids do particularly well in this budget. According to First
Focus, total discretionary spending on programs that are focused on children will
see a $6.12 billion boost over last year’s levels, an increase of 7.2
percent. President Obama’s budget proposes a cap of $447 billion for
non-security discretionary spending, equal to last year’s funding level.
Despite this freeze, the percentage of federal discretionary money spent on
children’s programs would increase under the President’s request, rising from
18.97 percent in fiscal year 2010 to 20.34 percent in fiscal year 2011. Total discretionary spending on children in
fiscal year 2010 totaled $84.8 billion. The President’s budget request
increases that spending to approximately $90.9 billion.
No
matter how you cut it, the President’s proposed budget would be good for jobs,
good for kids and families, and good for poverty reduction and shared
prosperity. Now, of course, it goes to
Congress… and the hard work starts!
Posted by Mike and Shelley
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