The Status of the House Budget

From “Confronting Poverty,” an initiative of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA; www.jewishpublicaffairs.org)

May 4, 2006

Since Congress has returned from their April recess, there have been numerous news articles and commentary on the status of this year’s Budget Reconciliation Bill. As you may remember, the Senate passed its Budget Resolution on March 16th, by a vote of 51-49. Included in the Senate budget resolution was an amendment offered by Senators Specter (R-PA) and Harkin (D-IA), Chair and Ranking Member respectively of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, which added $7 billion to restore cuts to programs under the jurisdiction of that subcommittee. On the other side of Congress, the House Budget Committee approved their budget plan on March 29th. It was expected to be voted on by the full House the following week, but stalled when the House Leadership realized they did not have enough votes to pass the legislation. Over a month later legislators in the House are still working to garner enough votes to pass the bill by compromising with House moderates, who believe that the spending levels dictated by the Budget Committee are too low.

The Budget Resolution as passed by the House Budget Committee stayed very close to the President’s funding request levels. Its funding for annual appropriations is ten billion dollars short of the cost needed just to keep up the current level of services next year - for education, food packages for the poor, housing, child care, meals on wheels, and many other services. A likely result of this under funding will undoubtedly be cuts in programs such as education, Head Start, child care, job training, services for the elderly, and many health programs. In addition, it forces $4 billion in cuts over 5 years from a category of funding that includes basic entitlements such as unemployment insurance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or income support for poor elderly or people with disabilities. Lastly, the House Budget Resolution calls for billions in cuts to mandatory programs, much of which could come from cuts to critical supports for low-income families, such as the Earned Income Credit, Supplemental Security Income and Unemployment Insurance.

While the House leadership has emphasized that they intend to pass a bill before they adjourn for Memorial Day recess, it remains unclear when, if ever, the House Budget Resolution will come to a vote. Procedurally, a Budget Resolution is passed which dictates how much money each appropriations committee has to divide between the programs under their discretion. However, even without passage of a formal resolution, appropriations committees are expected to move ahead on FY 2007 allocations.

On April 5th, the Jewish Community sent a letter to House members opposing the budget. The letter states, “The budget plan passed out of the House Budget Committee would make huge cuts to domestic discretionary programs. These cuts would be extremely harmful both to our social service agencies that are dependent on public funding as well as the vulnerable populations we advocate on behalf of.” We encourage you to contact your Members of Congress and urge them to vote “No” on a budget resolution that would be extremely harmful both to Jewish social service agencies that are dependent on public funding as well as the vulnerable populations we advocate on behalf of. Click here to find your Member’s direct office number. Please let us know if you are sending letters to your Representatives.

For further information, contact Sarina Fogel at (202) 789-2222, ext. 102 or by email at sfogel@thejcpa.org.