IN THE NEWS

Full Funding Now

by Amy Keller
Roll Call

September 18, 2003

House Administration Chairman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) renewed their call for full funding of election reform this week.
In a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other House leaders, Ney and Hoyer asked that $1.86 billion in election reform funding be included in supplemental spending measures to help states “get into compliance on the schedule required by the bill.”

The Help America Vote Act, which was signed by President Bush last October, authorized $3.86 billion in spending in fiscal years 2003 through 2005 to help state and local governments improve their voting systems and voter registration processes.

But so far only $1.5 billion has been appropriated for fiscal 2003; $500 million was contained in a recent appropriations bill for fiscal 2004.

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