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Tuesday, December 07, 2004
The Spending Bill: What's Inside?
The FY 2005 spending bill includes $388 billion worth of government spending, and is over 3,000 pages long. So what’s inside? How do funding levels differ from last year? Here is a glimpse —
The Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget was cut by $618 million, reducing it by 1.6 percent, to $37.3 billion. That amount was still $521 million more than the president requested;
Earlier this year, Bush proposed cutting the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by more than 7 percent. Congress softened that blow, but nevertheless sliced the agency's funding by more than 3 percent -- about $277 million -- to approximately $8.08 billion. The bill also includes legislative language allowing the government to continue charging various fees at some national parks, to permit the slaughter of some wild horses roaming the West and to continue to allow snowmobiles at Yellowstone National Park;
Congress approved the smallest budget increase in nearly a decade for the Department of Education. The total discretionary budget of $56.6 billion is up $916 million, or 1.6 percent, on 2004 levels. Spending on several higher education programs, including the popular Pell Grants for low-income students, didn't keep pace with rising costs. The maximum Pell Grant was frozen at $4,050 for the third year in a row;
The budget funds the first deployment of a national missile defense system, at a cost of $10 billion. It also increased by $1.5 billion the administration's request for spending on ground combat systems, such as tanks, trucks and Humvees;
At the behest of Rep. David Joseph Weldon (R-Fla.), House negotiators inserted language into the bill allowing doctors, hospitals and insurers to refuse to perform abortions or offer abortion counseling. The budget for abstinence education increased by $30 million, to $105 million;
Funding for LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program) increased from $1.89 billion to $2.18 billion. While this is a sizable increase, many supporters of the program are arguing that it is not nearly enough to keep up with the projected 24 percent increase in home heating costs that we are expected to see this year;
The Justice Department gained nearly $1 billion in new funding, faring even better than it would have under Bush's request. Most of the increase -- $625 million -- will go to the FBI to improve its counterterrorism and counterintelligence programs and to revamp its antiquated technology systems. At $5.2 billion, the bureau's rapidly growing budget dwarfs other Justice agencies;
The Department of Transportation spending fell 5 percent, from $46.1 billion to $43.9 billion, in fiscal 2004. Federal highways received $35.5 billion, or $1.9 billion more than in fiscal 2004. The Federal Aviation Administration, which already took funding hits this year, will receive $13.6 billion, $219 million less than in fiscal 2004.
This information, plus much more, can be found in a very detailed article in today’s Washington Post. You can find that article here.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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