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| Appropriations Showdown Looming |
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Congress is currently on a four week recess, and it is unclear what the plan of action will be when they return in September to address funding for all discretionary federal government programs for FY ’08. Little time will remain before the new fiscal year begins on October 1 to resolve what is shaping up to be sharp differences between the Administration and Democratic-led Congress over funding. Prior to recess, the House succeeded in enacting all 12 appropriations bills. The Senate, on the other hand, has passed only the Homeland Security Appropriations bill.
The stage began to be set for confrontation between the White House and the Democratic-led Congress in February when the President proposed a total of $933 billion for annual appropriations in defense and all non-defense agencies and programs. The non-defense portion of his budget failed to keep pace with inflation and slashed funding in many programs serving low-income people, including job training programs, rural health, mental health and substance abuse treatment, Head Start, LIHEAP home energy assistance, special education (IDEA), the Community Service Block Grant, nutrition for the elderly, Pell grants, low-income housing, and child safety and juvenile justice programs. In May, Congress passed its budget containing $23.2 billion more than what the President proposed for non-defense spending. This modest increase is less than one percent of the total $2.9 trillion budget.
Before the appropriations bills were even written the President began repeatedly threatening to veto any of the bills whose funding level exceeded his request. House Republicans responded by sending a letter to the President signed by 147 of their members telling him they would sustain his vetoes without having seen the bills. Of the 12 bills passed by the House, the White House has now written veto threat letters in response to 9 of them. The three that escaped a veto threat were: Military Construction and Veterans even though the House bill exceeds the President’s request by $4 billion; Defense for which the House provides $3 billion less than requested; and Legislative Branch funding which the Administration did not comment on. Two bills with less funding than the President requested, Financial Services and State/Foreign Operations, received veto threats because of policies they contain. The Administration has threatened to veto the remaining 7 because they exceed his spending request. The largest of the bills containing many programs that serve low-income families is the Labor-HHS-Education bill which is funded at $9 billion above the President’s request in the Senate committee-passed bill and $10.9 billion higher in the House bill.
It is not clear how many appropriations bills the Senate will attempt to send individually to the floor prior to October 1. As September 30 approaches there will almost certainly be bills that have not gone through the full process of negotiation between House and Senate leading to legislation sent on to the President for his signature. Typically Congress needs to pass continuing resolutions (CRs) to avoid government shutdowns for the agencies whose funding for the new year has not been determined. Last year the Republican-led Congress failed to pass multiple spending bills leaving the newly-elected Democratic leadership to finish the work. Funding for FY ’07 was finalized in an omnibus spending bill in February.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director will be the Administration’s key representative negotiating the outcome of the appropriations process with Congress. In an unexpected move this summer, OMB Director Rob Portman announced his resignation and the President quickly nominated as his replacement former House Budget Chairman Jim Nussle who lost his bid to be governor of Iowa in ’06. Many Democrats are uneasy about Nussle’s partisan and confrontational style and his history of proposing budgets that cut low-income programs even more deeply than the Bush Administration proposed. The two Senate committees with jurisdiction over the nomination both overwhelmingly cleared the nomination for consideration by the full Senate. However, Senator Sanders (I-VT) placed a ‘hold’ on the nomination, a procedure that blocks a vote by the full Senate. He highlighted the Administration’s lack of concern for working class and poor people as his reason. At least one other Senator also has a ‘hold’ on the nomination. One likely scenario is that the President will use his prerogative to appoint Nussle as OMB Director without confirmation while Congress is in recess this month.
Congressional leaders met during the week of July 30 with the President to see if they could find common ground. While there may be some flexibility to shift funds within the bills, the President is reportedly holding fast to his overall spending level. In September the President is expected to make a request to Congress for supplemental funding for the unpopular war in Iraq and Afghanistan and additional foreign aid for allies in the Middle East. This request further sets the stage for confrontation on competing spending priorities. |
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| First Things First for Michigan: The President's Budget Makes the Wrong Choices for Michigan |
 In Michigan, we share some basic priorities. We all want our children to grow up healthy. We want to know that if we are sick or hurt, there will be doctors and nurses and ambulances ready to care for us. We want our kids to get a good education so they can get good jobs and strengthen our economy, and because an informed citizenry is the base of a healthy democracy. We want everyone to have enough nutritious food to eat. We want to breathe clean air and drink clean water.
The budget proposal that President Bush sent to Congress makes the wrong choices. It would cut programs that are needed to build a prosperous future for our communities, Illinois and the nation. It would make permanent the tax cuts that benefit millionaires and leave a legacy of debt for our children. It would trim the federal budget by shifting costs to Michigan and other states, and by denying aid to the vulnerable. And it escalates the damage over time, making significant cuts in 2008 that become truly devastating by 2012. (Click here for the full report).
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| ECAP's "First Things First" Agenda |
The Emergency Campaign for America ’s Priorities (ECAP) is a nationwide campaign of national and grassroots organizations committed to reversing the Administration’s policy of drastic cuts to programs that primarily benefit the poor and middle class in order to finance tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and special interests. Our “First Things First” agenda is a plan to fully meet pressing human needs over five years and assure that all pay their fair share.
The 110 th Congress can expand opportunity and prosperity for the vast majority of Americans, ensuring long-term economic growth by investing in critical human needs priorities. The ECAP agenda for 2007 is a down payment on reversing the upside-down budget and tax priorities of the Bush Administration and the 109th Congress.
The “First Things First” agenda is based on our shared values that each of us deserves the opportunity to succeed, to have access to adequate health care, food, housing, education and the economic security to live with dignity. And yet, unmet needs are growing – 250,000 child care slots have been lost since 2000, 17 states are facing shortfalls in 2007 in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), 130,000 housing rental vouchers have been lost since 2004, and Food Stamp benefits average only $1 per individual for a meal.
To meet critical needs, the 110 th Congress must establish a path to fully funding domestic programs serving people in need by 2012.
For FY 2008, Congress must:
- Provide $450 billion for non-military, non-homeland security discretionary spending.
- Increase outdated benefit levels for Food Stamps, fund SCHIP at levels adequate to cover all eligible children, restore funds cut from child support enforcement, and strengthen the unemployment insurance program.
- Reject new tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests, and any changes in the tax system, such as an AMT “fix,” that do not make the system more progressive and that do not, at a minimum, replace lost tax revenue.
The 110 th Congress must set forth a plan to meet 100 percent of the growing unmet need for services. It must increase the overall non-military, non-homeland security discretionary spending in FY 2008 and produce a significant expansion of services beyond FY 2005 levels, adjusted for inflation and population growth, as a down payment towards fully funding by 2012 those domestic programs serving people in need, with special emphasis on labor, health, education, social services, nutrition, and housing. Congress must also oppose appointed entitlement or other commissions whose primary goal is to cut benefits or limit program eligibility.
Though the irresponsible tax and budget policies of the Bush Administration and previous Congress have left the 110 th Congress with significant fiscal challenges, we all have a shared responsibility to pay for these common-good investments through a fair and progressive tax system. This shared responsibility begins with ending the tax handouts that overwhelmingly benefit those making over $200,000 a year, and eliminating corporate tax breaks and other subsidies that do little to create more economic opportunity and sustainable prosperity.
Pay-Go and other budget rules are an important framework through which Congress can make fiscally responsible investments in critical priorities and needed services throughout America while creating more equitable tax policy.
Resources to address human needs can also come from preventing wasteful uses of public funds, both in the United States and Iraq.
By making a down payment on the First Things First Agenda, the 110 th Congress can renew our nation’s moral commitment that every one deserves to live in dignity. |
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ECAP partners include the following national organizations: |
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
ACORN
Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA)
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
American Academy of HIV Medicine
The Arc and UCP Disability Policy Collaboration
Campaign for America's Future (CAF)
Center for Community Change
Children's Defense Fund |
Mennonite Central Committee, Washington Office MoveOn.org Political Action
National Council of Churches
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
National Women's Law Center (NWLC)
OMB Watch
People For the American Way (PFAW)
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Rural Americans for a Secure Future (RASF)
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Sierra Club |
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| Budget Cuts Claim the Littlest Victims |
| From the Saginaw News - April 1, 2007 |
| Linda Teeter and Terri Winegarden, Guest Columnists |
President Bush's 2008 budget could not be any farther from meeting the needs and priorities of residents of Saginaw. Despite the administration's claims of a strong economy, in Saginaw the rich are getting richer while hardworking middle class and low-income folks are barely getting by. We deserve better then the president's budget, which cuts billions of dollars from programs that impact Michigan families mst in need - cuts to education, nutrition, child care, health care, affordable housing, job training, heating and cooling assistance, and in community and rural development.MORE >> |
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| Standing Up for Michigan Residents in the Federal Budget Battles |
 A bull's-eye has been placed on Michigan's poor working and middle class families. The President along with his supporters in Congress have advanced a budget proposal that will eliminate over $10.3 billion dollars in domestic discretionary program funding for FY 2007 - including cuts to education, health care, and veteran benefits. The overall goal of the plan is to slash over $167 billion from these programs over the next 5 years. The plan also calls for a $228 billion dollar for the wealthy over the next several years.
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 Over the past several months, MCA has participated in press conferences, meetings, and rallies along with other groups and organization across the state to educate Michigan residents about the impending crisis. Our goal is to persuade the Michigan Congressional Delegation to vote against any legislation that will jeopardize the most vulnerable of our residents- the young, elderly and disabled.
We are asking every person who receives a MCA Newsletter to contact their Congressional Representative and demand for them to support a budget that supports children and seniors instead of giving tax breaks to the rich.
To find your congressional representative go to www.congress.org.
You are also encouraged to write a letter to the editor to your local newspapers to express your concern over the budget (see "Action Tips" feature in this newsletter!) Please let Michigan Citizen Action know when you are sending a letter, so that we may provide you with assistance.
Seniors in the Bull's-eye
- In his FY 2007 budget, the President is proposing to slash Medicare -the safety net our parents and grandparents depend on. It also inflicts further cuts to Medicaid. Additionally more than65,000 low-income Michigan seniors would lose food assistance under the Bush budget.
- The Bush budget also revives then Administration's attack on Social Security - cutting benefits to widows, orphans and children and pushing privatization.
Michigan Workers in the Bull's-eye
- The President's budget proposal slashes vocational and adult education by $247 million. Over 234,100 jobs and 179,500 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Michigan, with 344,066 looking for work.
- As oil prices drive the cost of home heating prices sky high, home heating assistance for low-income families in Michigan would be cut by more than $104 million.
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