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Floor Schedule and Procedure
Bill Summary & Key Issues
Summary of H.R. 3293 – Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
BILL TOTAL
Discretionary programs: $160.7 billion, $5.6 billion above the comparable 2009 level for discretionary accounts including offsets for 2010. In addition, the Budget Resolution provides for a $2.7 billion upward adjustment for program integrity initiatives and LIHEAP.
Mandatory programs: $567 billion, $48.3 billion above 2009, for mandatory programs in 2010. Funding requirements for entitlement programs are determined by the basic authorizing statutes. Mandatory programs include general fund support for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, Supplemental Security Income, Trade Adjustment Assistance, and Black Lung payments.
Program Integrity Provisions: The bill includes $1.129 billion – a 50 percent increase – for program integrity activities designed to reduce improper payments, fraud, and abuse. These funds will allow DOL to conduct additional eligibility assessments and improper payment reviews under the Unemployment Insurance Program, expand the HHS Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program, and enable SSA to work down a backlog of continuing disability reviews to determine whether benefits are properly paid. These efforts could result in over $48 billion in savings and increased revenues over the next ten years. In addition, the Committee fully funds the amounts requested for the various Inspectors General with audit and oversight responsibilities for the agencies included in the bill.
Significant Cuts: In order to invest in the critical priorities identified in this bill, and in an effort to build an economy that is on a solid foundation for growth to put the nation on a path toward prosperity, the Committee makes a number of hard choices by proposing in this bill a number of program terminations, reductions, and other savings from the fiscal year 2009 totaling $1.3 billion. In addition, $3.3 billion in other savings from the budget request are recommended. These adjustments, no matter their size, are important to setting the right priorities within the spending allocation, for reducing the deficit, and creating a government that is as efficient as it is effective.
KEY INVESTMENTS
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES INVESTMENTS
Community Health Centers: $2.2 billion, the same as the President’s request and 2009. This funding will provide primary health care to 17 million patients, of whom 40 percent are uninsured, in 7,500 service delivery sites. These centers are likely to become medical homes for patients newly enfranchised by health care reform. They provide high quality care in both urban and rural underserved areas across the country.
Health Professions Workforce Shortages: $530 million, $1.6 million above the President’s request and $137 million above 2009, to support the training of students across the health professions and nursing fields. Some of the programs are specifically targeted to disadvantaged, underserved populations. These students will provide the backbone of the health care system for underserved areas, especially if health care reform expands coverage.
State Health Access Grants: $75 million, the same as the President’s request and 2009. A second year of grants for this new program is an important transition to national health care reform. States can use this funding to expand coverage for segments of their population to test ideas before a national coverage system takes effect.
National Institutes of Health (NIH): $31.3 billion, $500 million above the President’s request and $942 million above 2009, for biomedical research to improve health and reduce health care expenditures. NIH research will help doctors move away from today’s costly and predominantly curative model to a presumptive model, allowing intervention before disease occurs. Further, NIH research will enhance the quality of health care as health system reform addresses universal access.
Public Health: $6.7 billion, $38 million above the President’s request and $67 million above 2009, for the discretionary public health programs administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Increases are provided for a number of CDC programs, including:
Mental Health Services: $1 billion, $22 million above the President’s request and $39 million above 2009, for mental health services programs administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Increases are provided for a number of mental health services programs, including a:
Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment: $2.4 billion, $46 million above 2009 and $3 million above the President’s request, for substance abuse prevention and treatment programs administered by SAMHSA. Increases are provided for SAMHSA’s criminal justice portfolio, as follows:
Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs): $204 million, $23 million above the President’s request and $34 million above 2009, to continue an aggressive campaign to dramatically reduce life-threatening infections that patients acquire while receiving treatment for medical or surgical conditions. HAIs are among the top ten leading causes of death in the U.S., accounting for nearly 100,000 deaths, 1.7 million infections, and $28 billion to $33 billion in excess healthcare costs annually. The Committee bill includes:
OTHER PROGRAMS FOR THE VERY VULNERABLE
Low Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP): $5.1 billion, $1.9 billion above the President’s request and the same as 2009, to ensure that approximately 7.5 million low-income households continue to receive the home energy assistance they need in a volatile energy market.
Head Start: $7.2 billion, the same as the request and $122 million above 2009, to sustain high-quality, comprehensive early childhood services, including educational, health, nutritional, and social services, to approximately 978,000 low income children before they enter school, nearly 70,000 over the fiscal year 2008 level.
Foster Care Innovation: $20 million, the same as the President’s request, for a new initiative to improve outcomes for children in foster care by providing incentives to States to develop evidence-based improvements for children in long-term care.
Nutrition and Other Services for Seniors: $1.5 billion, $37 million above the President’s request and 2009, to boost nutrition, transportation, and other supportive services for elderly Americans. This funding will help provide nearly 239 million meals to 2.5 million seniors, an increase of approximately 3 million meals.
Reducing Abortions: $7.8 billion, $61 million above the President’s request and $135 million above 2009, for programs that may help reduce the number of abortions in America by alleviating the economic pressures and other real life conditions that can sometimes cause women to decide not to carry their pregnancies to term.
Teen Pregnancy: $114 million for a new evidence-based teenage pregnancy prevention initiative in the HHS Administration for Children and Families to address a rise in teenage births, following a 34 percent decline between 1991 and 2006. The overwhelming majority of teenage pregnancies are unplanned; therefore, reducing the incidence of teenage pregnancy can have untold individual and societal benefits, including reducing poverty, improving education outcomes, improving child well-being, and reducing the need for abortions.
IMPROVING EDUCATION
Title I Grants for Low-Income Children: $14.5 billion for Title I grants to school districts, which restores the proposed $1.5 billion cut to the program, in order to ensure that approximately 20 million disadvantaged children in nearly 55,000 public schools obtain the educational skills they need to compete in a global economy. School districts may use any portion or all of these funds to support early childhood education activities and, thus, the bill does not include a separate funding stream for early childhood programs as requested by the Administration.
School Improvement: $545 million, the same as 2009, for assistance to approximately 13,000 schools across the country with chronically poor academic performance.
Teacher Incentive Fund: $446 million, $41 million below the President’s request and $349 million above 2009, for the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), which supports school districts and States that aim to reward effective teaching through compensation systems that reward entire high-need schools for raising student achievement.
Charter Schools: $256 million, $12 million below the President’s request and $40 million above the fiscal year 2009, to support the start-up of over 1,300 new charter schools in fiscal year 2010. The bill also includes new accountability measures to ensure that new charter schools are successful.
Striving Readers: $146 million, more than tripling the 2009 funding level, to help struggling adolescents build their literacy skills, start a new early reading comprehensive initiative, and improve the integration of reading initiatives across the Department of Education.
High School Graduation Initiative: $50 million for a new High School Graduation Initiative to target assistance on high school “dropout factories” – schools that disproportionately contribute to the nation’s dropout crisis, as proposed by the Administration.
Individuals With Disabilities Act: $11.5 billion, the same as the President’s request, building on $11.3 billion in the Recovery Act to support a record 25 percent Federal contribution toward special education in each of fiscal years 2009 and 2010.
Adult Education: $628 million, the same as the President’s request and $74 million above 2009, for Adult Basic Literacy Education State Grants. These State formula grants will enable over three million adults to acquire basic literacy skills, complete a secondary education, and become more employable, productive, and responsible citizens – 316,000 more adults than in fiscal year 2009.
Pell Grants: in fiscal year 2009, the Committee led the effort to provide an historic $619 increase in the maximum Pell award, to $5,350. Pell Grants are the foundation of the Federal commitment to ensure access to higher educational opportunities for low- and middle-income students by providing need-based financial assistance that helps them pay for college costs. This bill maintains the discretionary portion of the maximum Pell Grant award at $4,860, which, combined with a mandatory supplement of $690, will support a $5,550 maximum Pell Grant in fiscal year 2010, an increase of $200 over the 2009 award level.
Support for Developing Institutions: $653 million to strengthen the capacity of Historically Black and Predominantly Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities and Native American serving Institutions, Asian Pacific Islander, and Native American institutions, $110 million over the President’s request and $146 million over 2009. In addition, the bill provides for $178 million in new loan guarantees for Historically Black College and University facilities – nearly triple the 2009 level.
TRIO and GEAR UP: $868 million for the TRIO programs and $333 million for GEAR UP, $20 million above the fiscal year 2009 funding level and the budget request for each program, to assist approximately 1.7 million disadvantaged and first-generation college students to prepare for, enter, and complete college – an increase of 51,000 students over fiscal year 2009.
EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING
Dislocated Worker Employment and Training Activities: $1.4 billion, $14.1 million below the President’s request and $57 million above 2009, for training and supportive services to workers affected by mass layoffs and plant closures. More than 500,000 workers lost their jobs in the first three months of 2009 due to mass layoffs.
YouthBuild: $100 million, $14.5 million below the President’s request and $30 million above 2009, to expand YouthBuild so that nearly 7,000 at-risk youth can gain high school credentials and construction skills training while building affordable housing for homeless families.
Transitional Jobs: $50 million, the same as the President’s request, for a new initiative based on a proven employment strategy to help noncustodial parents and workers who face substantial barriers to entering the workforce.
Green Jobs: $50 million, the same as the President’s request, to prepare workers for careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy. This new Administration initiative will support pre-apprenticeship programs, career pathways, and other gateways for more than 8,000 workers to enter careers in emerging green industries.
Career Pathways Innovation Fund: $135 million, $10 million above 2009, for new competitive grants to community colleges and partnerships with local adult education providers for career pathways to prepare workers for careers in high demand and emerging industries. The Committee directs that approximately half of these funds, $65 million, must be used to train workers for careers in the health care sector, with a focus on nursing professions.
Older Workers: $615 million, $40 million above the President’s request and $43.5 million above 2009, to provide community service opportunities for nearly 100,000 low-income seniors. The Recovery Act provided $120 million for the Title V older workers program.
Unemployment Insurance Operations: $3.2 billion, the same as the President’s request and $423.5 million above 2009, to help States process unemployment insurance claims.
Veterans Employment and Training: $265 million, $10 million above the President’s request and $25.7 million above 2009, to maximize employment and training opportunities for veterans transitioning to the civilian workforce, and to protect their employment rights. This amount includes $257 million for Department of Labor and $8 million in the Department of Education for a new Centers of Excellence for Veterans Success initiative to establish college and university-based support centers for veterans seeking to obtain a post-secondary education.
WORKER SAFETY AND HEALTH
Labor Law Enforcement: $1.5 billion, $28 million below the President’s request and $105 million above 2009, to support up to 600 new full-time equivalent enforcement and compliance positions (an increase of 13 percent) at the Employment Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Employment Standards Administration (ESA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MHSA).
VOLUNTEERISM AND SERVICE TO AMERICA
Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS): $1 billion, $90 million below the President’s request and $169 million above 2009. This funding, together with Recovery Act funds, will increase the number of AmeriCorps members by 15,000 volunteers, from 74,000 to nearly 89,000, and the number of Senior Volunteers by more than 9,000, from 473,000 to 482,000.
New Summer of Service Program and Social Innovation Fund: Provides funds to support 2,000 students for a new Summer of Service program. Included within the total is an initial investment of $35 million to launch a new Social Innovation Fund that will leverage matching non-Federal funds to scale up proven programs and invest in promising new ideas in low-income communities.
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Supporting Seniors and the Disabled: $11.4 billion, $993 million above 2009, for a limitation on administrative expenses for SSA. The Committee is dedicated to helping the Social Security Administration (SSA) address several challenges, including processing a rising number of retirement and disability claims, reducing the backlog of disability claims, and improving service to the public.
CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
Public Broadcasting: $541 million, $40 million above the President’s request and $50 million above 2009, for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This amount includes:
OTHER IMPORTANT POLICY ITEMS
Amendments to H.R. 3293 – Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
Chairman Obey recommends that Members VOTE YES.
Chairman Obey recommends that Members VOTE NO.
Chairman Obey recommends that Members VOTE YES.
Chairman Obey recommends that Members VOTE NO.
Chairman Obey recommends that Members VOTE NO.
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