Congressional Quarterly Weekly December 05, 2003
VA-HUD: Veterans Win More Health Funding
By Kate Schuler and Niels C. Sorrells
Determined not to alienate an influential voting bloc less than a year before the 2004 elections, Congress maneuvered to tack nearly $1.6 billion in additional spending for veterans' programs onto the year-end omnibus spending bill. At the same time, the appropriators squeezed out more funding for national service programs and housing in the VA-HUD appropriations measure, the second-largest domestic spending bill.
The sprawling VA-HUD bill funds the departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and independent agencies, including the EPA and NASA.
Although lawmakers treated the increased veterans' spending as a done deal during final negotiations on the omnibus bill (HR 2673 -- H Rept 108-401), their attitude belied the legislative fights, administrative threats and political pressure from veterans' groups that went into carving out the extra money.
"You would certainly think this would be a much easier process," said Joseph Violante, legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans. "I think the veterans' community would have been outraged if Congress hadn't provided the extra money. They would have been wondering what Congress was doing for them."
Shifting Money
Some of the additional $1.6 billion was freed up by making minor cuts from the seven other spending bills included in the omnibus. The extra money, combined with anticipated fee collections, increases spending for Department of Veterans Affairs health care programs to $28.6 billion, including anticipated fee collections. That is nearly a third of the total discretionary spending originally allocated for the $128.2 billion fiscal 2004 VA-HUD appropriations bill.
Combined with a $1.3 billion increase President Bush proposed for the same programs, the Veterans Health Administration would receive a $2.9 billion increase over fiscal 2003 spending levels.
The key for lawmakers was finding room for the additional spending. Members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee in February proposed a $1.8 billion increase over fiscal 2003 levels. The amount was included in the fiscal 2004 budget resolution (H Con Res 95) after committee Chairman Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., and a group of House Republicans threatened to vote against any budget that did not supply the extra dollars.
House appropriators, however, refused to include the $1.8 billion in the VA-HUD bill. Smith and a bipartisan group of legislators waged an unsuccessful floor fight in July to include the money. The bill passed, 316-109, without the extra funds.
But the Senate, which had included the extra money in the budget without any pressure, moved quickly to restore the funds to the bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee in September initially carved out space for $270 million in its bill, along with $1.3 billion in designated emergency spending that could only be used if the administration specifically requested it.
When the measure came to the floor in November, Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, diverted $1.3 billion from the Commerce-Justice-State bill so that the $1.3 billion could be converted to a standard appropriation.
When the measure was rolled into the omnibus, the money was restored to the C-J-S bill and included in the VA-HUD bill through a series of across-the-board cuts in the bills that make up the omnibus. The administration had hinted it would oppose the extra money if it was not appropriated within existing budget caps. (Omnibus, p. 3003)
Bush Rebuffed on Housing
Housing advocates also won a victory when conferees funded HUD's Section 8 low-income housing voucher program at $19.4 billion--nearly $1 billion more than either the House or Senate had allotted. That money would fully fund all existing rental assistance vouchers, a victory for public housing advocates who fought potential cutbacks and Bush administration efforts to convert the program into block grants to states.
Kim Schaffer, spokeswoman for the National Low Income Housing Coalition, nonetheless expressed concern about language in the conference report that instructs HUD officials to work to control "spiraling" voucher costs.
"Vouchers have only been increasing in cost because housing has been increasing in cost," Schaffer said. "It's real life."
Conferees removed Senate language that would have created 5,500 new vouchers to help disabled residents move out of publicly funded housing for the elderly.
Lawmakers also rebuffed the administration on funding for the HOPE VI housing revitalization program, which the Bush administration wants to abolish. The program, which demolishes and replaces distressed urban housing, has been criticized for inefficiency. However, local elected officials defended the program, and appropriators such as Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo. -- the chairman of the Senate Appropriations VA-HUD Subcommittee -- intervened with funds to keep it solvent.
The House originally reserved $50 million for the program in order to save it from elimination and send a message of disapproval to the administration. But the Senate went a step further, setting aside $195 million. In the end, conferees agreed on $150 million. Congress had appropriated $570 million for the program in fiscal 2003.
Small Engines
On another front, Bond did not completely prevail on language he inserted into the Senate bill that would have stripped states of the right to regulate emissions from small gasoline engines in machines such as lawnmowers, generators, and boat motors. Bond had insisted the provision was needed to prevent domestic job loss. Briggs & Stratton Corp., a major producer of such engines, has two plants in Bond's home state, and he said his amendment would save thousands of jobs.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., opposed the measure, saying it would hurt states' ability to control pollution -- especially in California where regulators limited such emissions in September. With Bond and Feinstein trading criticism and offering dueling amendments, House and Senate conferees finally agreed to allow Bond to insert modified language that would allow California's regulations to remain, but would bar other states from imitating that state's restrictions. Both Bond and Feinstein hailed the compromise as a victory.
The bill would fund the Environmental Protection Agency at $8.4 billion, $333 million more than the fiscal 2003 appropriation.
AmeriCorps, the national service program, received a significant funding increase in the conference bargaining, despite concerns about management issues that led many lawmakers to call for overhauling the agency.
A series of management problems led to a funding shortfall for AmeriCorps that threatened to force the agency to shed 20,000 volunteers. A new chief executive officer was appointed in July, and program administrators say they are addressing the problems.
The omnibus allots $444 million for AmeriCorps, the largest budget in the program's history.
The Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, was funded at $584 million, an increase of $200 million over fiscal 2003 spending. The $584 million also represents an increase of about $100 million over the amount allotted in the Senate and House versions of the bill.
Appropriators were able to grant the additional funds to national service programs after rescinding and reallocating unspent HUD Section 8 housing money.
Funding for the corporation was about $10 million less than Bush's request, but it will allow full funding of the 75,000 AmeriCorps volunteers that the president called for in his State of the Union address in January. Current funding levels support 50,000 volunteers.
"With a new leadership team and an aggressive management agenda, the Corporation . . . is committed to ensuring that this investment is used wisely and well," Stephen Goldsmith, chairman of the corporation's board of directors, said in a statement.
AmeriCorps volunteers receive $4,725 in educational grants for the year they spend doing service. About half of each year's volunteers also receive $9,300 in cost-of-living stipends.
Concerns About NASA
The bill would provide $15.5 billion for NASA, an $80 million increase from fiscal 2003 and roughly the amount the White House requested.
As NASA continues to examine the shuttle program after the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in February, conferees made no dramatic changes to the program's funding levels -- resisting calls both from critics who wanted to phase out the shuttle program and from supporters who wanted to pour new money into revitalizing it.
Despite the almost level funding, the conference report does express some of the concerns of lawmakers and scientists about the safety of manned space travel and the administrative competency of NASA.
An independent panel that investigated the breakup of the shuttle called for increased funding for NASA and said the agency should begin exploring a safer and cheaper successor to the space shuttle. The conference report provided no specific funding for the research, though it did call for an independent panel to report to Congress on the possibility of building such a vehicle. NASA has estimated the program could cost $9 billion to $13 billion.
Space Flight Capabilities
Overall, the bill would provide $7.5 billion for "space flight capabilities," $270 million less than the administration requested. That includes $15 million to investigate how to increase the survivability of manned space crews. Funding for the International Space Station would be slashed by $200 million to divert money to more pressing safety initiatives.
The conference report requires NASA to report to Congress within four months with its response to the Columbia panel's list of recommendations. The agency would also have to submit a 10-year funding profile for the shuttle fleet.
Critics said the bill does not address the main issues facing NASA -- a funding crunch and a muddy vision about the future of its manned space programs.
"It's a pre-accident budget," said John Pike, a space expert and director of GlobalSecurity.org. "It doesn't go to the root cause of the trouble, which is too much program, not enough money."
Congressional aides said the legislation will improve oversight of NASA and help ensure that the panel's recommendations are instituted.
Other experts say carrying out dramatic reform of the nation's space policy, including major increases in funding, would have been difficult during the appropriations process. Most of the important decisions about the future of NASA will be left to the authorizers.
The National Science Foundation would be funded at $5.6 billion, a 6 percent increase over fiscal 2003 and $130 million over the White House request.
The allotment falls short of the goal of doubling funding within five years that was laid out in the authorization bill in 2002 (PL 107-368).
Staff writer Amol Sharma contributed to this report.
Box Score
Bills: HR 2861, S 1584 (incorporated in HR 2673 -- conference report: H Rept 108-401) -- Fiscal 2004 Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, NASA and EPA appropriations.
Latest Action: Conference report filed Nov. 25.
Next Likely Action: House vote on adopting conference report scheduled for Dec. 8. Senate vote probably will be postponed until Jan. 20 or after.
Reference: Senate passage, CQ Weekly, p. 2904; Senate committee, p. 2160; House passage, P. 1910.
Source: CQ Weekly
© Copyright 2003, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
