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 FY 1999: Winners & Losers Tuesday, February 3, 1998; Page A15 The 1999 budget plan that President Clinton sent to Congress yesterday would leave the United States $10 billion in the black – the first federal surplus in 30 years. The proposal calls for spending $1.733 trillion and collecting $1.743 trillion. Because the budget contains many new spending initiatives and tax breaks while cutting the budget of only one department – Agriculture – a surplus is possible only if the government collects the $65 billion it anticipates receiving as part of a tobacco industry settlement. The discretionary funds discussed below are in outlays – the amount of money the government spends in the fiscal year, which begins in October – unless otherwise specified. How each agency would be affected: Agriculture | Commerce | Defense | Education | Energy
President Clinton vowed to restore the benefit after it was eliminated in the 1996 welfare law. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman noted that even with legal immigrants back on the rolls, 4 million fewer persons will receive food stamp benefits than in 1993. The $54.3 billion Agriculture Department budget also includes a $34 million increase for the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Though an increase of only 5 percent, a separate Clinton initiative would provide an additional $101 million government-wide for research, consumer education and other steps to reduce food contamination. Despite booming farm prosperity, the overall agriculture budget declines only slightly from 1998, reflecting continuing large fixed payments to farmers mandated in the 1996 Farm Act. In addition, the administration proposes improved access to credit by disadvantaged farmers and full funding of the crop insurance program.
– Dan Morgan, The Washington Post
Spending on the census would increase by 69 percent in 1999, to $1.087 billion, reflecting an increase in staff of 11,000, for a total of 16,500. The administration also wants to increase spending on the controversial Advanced Technology Program, which promotes research and development partnerships with private industry. The program has been repeatedly cut by the Republican Congress on the grounds that it is a form of "industrial policy" requiring Washington to pick winners and losers among promising technologies. The White House wants to spend $240 million on ATP in 1999, increasing to nearly $400 million by 2003 as more new technologies are funded. – Paul Blustein, The Washington Post
Clinton's $270.6 billion defense budget proposal, adjusted for inflation, fits a pattern of flat spending that administration officials expect to hold for the next few years. The administration is proposing to boost funds in two critical areas, however. The budget adds $1 billion to address spare-parts shortages and maintenance backlogs and to sustain training levels, amid reports that increased deployments at a time of troop cuts have eroded military readiness. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen yesterday promised "new management systems to track unit deployments and to focus corrective action whenever they exceed certain thresholds." Further, the budget provides $48.7 billion to update aging weaponry, a rise of about $4 billion over current procurement levels. Notably absent are funding requests for military operations in Bosnia or the Persian Gulf region, which Pentagon officials said would come later in the year. – Bradley Graham, The Washington Post
The nation's schools would receive another large infusion of money in the fiscal 1999 education budget – $33.9 billion in outlays, an increase of more than 10 percent. The most striking proposal is to spend $1 billion to start a seven-year program to help schools hire 100,000 teachers and to reduce class size in most elementary grades to 18 students per teacher. Much of the new spending targets poor, urban schools with severe academic problems. Clinton is proposing to add $392 million to Title I, a program that provides classroom aid to the neediest students. He also wants to spend $200 million on an initiative to designate some urban districts "Education Opportunity Zones" and award grants to help them improve. The budget calls for increases for after-school programs, independent "charter" public schools, a new tutoring program – called America Reads – and to upgrade classroom technology. Access to college was the focus of last year's education budget, and Clinton wants more spending on that subject again this year. He is proposing increases for Pell Grants, which needy college students use for tuition, and for work-study programs. – Rene Sanchez, The Washington Post
The Department of Energy is asking for $18 billion in budget authority in fiscal 1999, up approximately $1.5 billion, or 9 percent, from its 1998 budget authority. DOE outlays, or actual spending, would be increased in the president's budget to $17.2 billion, up 5.6 percent from an estimated $16.4 billion in 1998. Energy Secretary Federico Pen~a said the budget emphasizes "science, technology and energy for our future." Major increases include more money for research and development in energy efficiency, renewable energy, fossil energy and nuclear energy. That includes spending on research to improve the operations of aging nuclear power plants. About $330 million of President Clinton's proposed $6 billion in expenditures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases are included in the DOE budget. The budget also includes a request for $421 million to support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and address the threat of nuclear proliferation and $317 million to continue the cleanup of highly radioactive and toxic waste at old nuclear weapons facilities. DOE is requesting budget authority of $160 million to support the operation of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve without relying on oil sales from the reserve. – Martha M. Hamilton, The Washington Post
New assaults against water pollution, toxic waste and global warming add up to the biggest bottom line ever for the Environmental Protection Agency. Outlays would jump nearly 11 percent to $7.1 billion, according to the White House. EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner is asking for $116 million in new spending for climate change initiatives, more than doubling the agency's current efforts. The increase is part of the $6.3 billion Clinton wants to spend over the next five years to reduce the country's emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Another $145 million in new spending will fund the clean-water initiative announced by Vice President Gore in the fall, Browner said. Most would go to states and local communities to help them reduce indirect pollution from farms, lawns and city streets. – Joby Warrick, The Washington Post
Health and Human Services Department outlays would rise from $359 billion in fiscal 1998 to $381 billion, a 6 percent increase. The administration has proposed expanding Medicare to some Americans age 55 and older, increasing costs nearly 5 percent to $205 billion. The administration proposed a $1.15 billion increase, or 8.4 percent, for the National Institutes of Health, the single largest dollar increase in its history. Additional funds would create a Research Fund for America to bolster the nation's investment in basic medical research and focus more effort on disease prevention. The president has proposed a major increase in resources for child care, including a $7.5 billion increase over five years to help cover the cost for low- and moderate-income families. Medicaid, which covers health care for the poor, would grow from $101 billion to $108 billion. – Barbara Vobejda, The Washington Post
The 1999 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development is peppered with modest initiatives in nearly every program area. Nearly $1 billion is earmarked for housing rental assistance and economic development, while big percentage increases were proposed in spending to help the homeless and to fight housing discrimination. Most notably, the administration proposes the first increases in vouchers to help poor families pay for housing costs since the number was frozen at 3.1 million in 1994. Half of the 100,000 new vouchers would be reserved for families leaving welfare for work, 34,000 for the homeless and 8,800 for the elderly. Overall, HUD spending in fiscal 1999 will go up less than 2 percent to $31.6 billion, but the department is seeking to launch $1.8 billion in new programs, some of which will be paid for over several years. The budget also includes $400 million to help economically distressed communities retain and create jobs, and $50 million in additional Community Development Block Grants, the department's mainstay program for local governments. – Judith Havemann, The Washington Post
Some long overdue repairs are in store for America's 350 national parks if Congress fully funds Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's 1999 spending plan. Babbitt wants to expand the parks' maintenance budget by 18 percent, or $86 million, as part of a five-year effort to repair crumbling infrastructure. The department's $8.1 billion budget proposal represents a 6 percent jump over the current budget. The actual 1999 outlays would total $7.9 billion, or about the same as the current year. The budget calls for a 42 percent increase for endangered species programs, including 100 new "Habitat Conservation Plans" to protect threatened creatures and plants on private lands. It proposes $213 million in new land acquisitions, including ecologically important tracts in the Everglades, Southern California and the Mississippi Delta. The Bureau of Indian Affairs would receive an additional $142 million to fund education programs and improve law enforcement. – Joby Warrick, The Washington Post
Citing a need to intensify the fight against youth violence, narcotics, illegal immigration and "cybercrime," Attorney General Janet Reno said the Justice Department is seeking a 4.4 percent increase in its budget for fiscal 1999. That would bring the department's budget authority to $20.9 billion, up 87 percent since Clinton took office. The new budget includes $481 million for various programs to curb violent juvenile crime and support additional prosecutors. A total of $1.4 billion would go toward putting 16,000 more "community oriented police officers" on the street. The budget request also calls for 75 additional FBI agents and 24 government attorneys to "keep pace with the cybercriminals of the 21st century," Reno said. The budget also includes $7.7 billion to fight drug trafficking, adding 257 new anti-narcotics agents. The department also wants $4.2 billion for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, up 10.3 percent from this year. The agency plans to hire 1,000 new Border Patrol agents. – William Branigin, The Washington Post
The overall Labor Department budget calls for $36 billion in outlays for fiscal 1999, a 12.1 percent increase over Clinton's budget request last year. But all the increase is in mandatory programs over which the department has no control. Discretionary spending for new programs actually is down $100 million from $10.6 billion in the previous year. Two-thirds of Labor's budget involves mandatory spending for such programs as job training and unemployment insurance benefits. Nonetheless, Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman said the department was asking for increased spending in areas such as summer hiring for out-of-school youth, adult training grants and veterans' employment. – Frank Swoboda, The Washington Post
Although the State Department spending remains flat, the president's budget seeks about $20 billion for international affairs, including foreign aid, operation of the State Department, military aid, and payment to the United Nations and other international agencies, as well as U.S. contributions to international development banks. That figure represents an increase of about 6 percent from this year's appropriated level, and it is more than 10 percent above the level in fiscal 1997, when international affairs spending bottomed out. Much of the new money would be spent on aid to Africa, including $35 million in debt relief and $30 million for a special program mostly focused on building judiciary systems in Rwanda and Burundi. Aid to Haiti would double, from $70 million to $140 million. Not included is $1.02 billion the administration is seeking to pay this country's debt to the United Nations. That money will be sought in a separate supplemental appropriation. – Thomas W. Lippman, The Washington Post
Overall spending on the nation's transportation infrastructure would rise under the administration's fiscal 1999 budget to the highest level in the Department of Transportation's history. But details of the increases remain murky. Congress has yet to agree on a highway construction spending formula, and DOT officials were unable yesterday to offer specifics on how the administration would finance Clinton's proposed Transportation Fund for America. Budget documents say the fund would be financed in part by new aviation user fees. Beginning in 2000, the administration assumes that the current aviation excise taxes will be "gradually reduced and replaced with a more efficient system of cost-based user fees" for Federal Aviation Administration services. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater said Amtrak, the federally financed rail passenger service, will get the highest level of taxpayer support it has known in years. The budget calls for $621 million in fiscal 1999 for Amtrak. – Bill McAllister, The Washington Post
Under attack in Congress for mistreating taxpayers and lagging in its computer modernization program, the Internal Revenue Service would get an increase of $534 million to improve customer service and update its computers. The IRS, part of the Treasury Department, would get an overall increase of $8.3 billion from fiscal 1998. The budget adds 1,500 full-time staff positions to handle telephone calls from taxpayers and provide other services. Outlays for the Treasury Department would be about $399 billion, up from about $387 billion in fiscal 1998. – Judy Sarasohn, The Washington Post
The Clinton administration made good on its promise to slow the rate of growth in the Department of Veterans Affairs, a ploy that, no doubt, will increase pressure on Congress to enact legislation allowing VA hospitals to tap Medicare funding. Without Medicare, VA officials say, the future of their 170 hospitals is in doubt. Overall VA spending would increase slightly to $42.3 billion, while spending on medical programs would dip slightly. That decrease should be offset by insurance payments, which Congress has agreed to let the VA keep. The administration will ask Congress once again to overturn smoking-benefit rulings by its own general counsel. Those rulings would grant millions in compensation to veterans who smoked on active duty and have become ill as a result. – Bill McAllister, The Washington Post
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company |
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