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This Statement of Administration Policy provides the Administration's
views on S. 1061, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,
Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, FY 1998, as reported
by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Committee has developed a bill that provides requested funding for
many of the Administration's priorities. We are pleased that the Committee
has fully funded Bilingual and Immigrant Education, School to Work, and
Education Technology Programs. The Administration is also pleased that the
Committee has limited the number of appropriations riders, consistent with
the terms of the Bipartisan Budget Agreement. The Senate is urged to
continue this practice. As discussed below, the Administration will seek
restoration of certain of the Committee's reductions.
The Administration is committed to working with the Senate to identify
reductions in the bill in order to find offsets for the restoration of
funds that the Administration seeks. For example, the Committee bill
provides nearly $1.5 billion more than the President has requested for
three dozen authorities in the Department of Education, while cutting the
President's request by almost $2 billion. Similar reallocations are made
in other sections of the bill. We strongly urge the Senate to reduce
funding for lower priority programs, or for programs that would be
adequately funded at the requested level, and to redirect funding to
programs of higher priority, particularly those specified in the Bipartisan
Budget Agreement, as noted below.
Unfortunately, the Administration understands that a number of
controversial amendments may be offered, such as an amendment to halt the
President's national testing initiative, an amendment to prohibit the use
of funds in the Act for supervising the Teamster's election, an amendment
to enable states to privatize the administration of public assistance
programs, and another amendment to provide that welfare recipients in
workfare can be paid at rates below the minimum wage. In addition, a
number of these proposals, as well as certain provisions of the Committee
bill, such as the lack of funding for the President's America Reads
Challenge, are contrary to the Bipartisan Budget Agreement. If such
policies were adopted, particularly in light of other concerns raised in
this Statement of Administration Policy, the President's senior advisers
would be forced to recommend that the President veto the bill.
Department of Education
The Administration appreciates the Committee's efforts to provide
substantial new funding for education activities. Unfortunately, the
Committee has failed to provide the $260 million necessary for the
President's America Reads Challenge in the Department of Education, and the
bill provides only $16 million of the $42 million requested for America
Reads in the portion of the Corporation for National and Community Service
budget funded by this bill. The Committee has provided advance
appropriations for America Reads to the Department of Education for FY
1999, pending new authorization, which would produce a full year's delay in
getting needed reading assistance to millions of children. The Bipartisan
Budget Agreement specifically calls for funding a literacy program,
"consistent with the goals and concepts of the President's America Reads
program" at the levels proposed in the President's FY 1998 Budget. America
Reads is one of the Administration's highest funding priorities. The
Administration believes that full FY 1998 funding for this initiative
should be restored to both the Department of Education and the Corporation
for National and Community Service activities funded in this bill and in
the VA/HUD Appropriations bill.
The Administration is working closely with the authorizing committees
to develop legislation effective for FY 1998. There is ample time to enact
legislation, as needed, by April 1 for a program that would begin on July
1, in time for summer activities and the 1998-1999 school year. The
Administration urges the Congress to do so. However, to ensure that
funding is provided in a manner consistent with the Bipartisan Budget
Agreement, the Administration strongly urges the Congress to include in
this Act a provision to make the funds available on April 1 under existing
authorities, in the event that final action on the authorization bill is
not completed in a timely manner.
The Administration will strongly oppose potential amendments that
would bring a halt to the President's national testing initiative. The
national tests proposed by the President are critical because they will,
for the first time, provide students, parents, and teachers the opportunity
to measure how well students are performing in comparison to other students
nationally and internationally and, as a result, they will help hold
schools accountable for the performance of all students. The Department of
Education has the authority to develop these tests under the Fund for the
Improvement of Education (FIE) program, which provides the Secretary with
the authority to support nationally significant programs and projects to
improve the quality of education. We support the Committee report language
requiring that the Department of Education contract with the National
Academy of Science to conduct an evaluation of the testing initiative. In
addition, we support legislation to place overall responsibility for the
testing initiative with the independent, bipartisan National Assessment
Government Board.
The Bipartisan Budget Agreement specifies funding at the levels
proposed in the President's budget for Pell grants, which supports both a
$3,000 maximum award and expanded eligibility for independent students.
The Committee bill cuts the Pell request by over $725 million from the
President's request, and thus does not fund the Administration's proposed
independent student policy. The Administration proposes that the
appropriation act include one year of authority while the reauthorization
process is pending. This authorization is no different from the
Committee's annual procedure of authorizing the maximum Pell grant award.
In accordance with the terms of the Bipartisan Budget Agreement, we urge
the Senate to fully fund Pell grants and to authorize both the maximum
award and the independent student change.
While the Committee has exceeded the amount specified in the Balanced
Budget Agreement for Education Reform, it has achieved this by adding
technology funding currently within another account, rather than funding
the full request for current Education Reform account programs. Within the
total, Goals 2000 State and local grants are funded at only $500 million,
$105 million below the request. Goals 2000 funds provide essential support
to every State's education improvement strategy. We strongly urge the
Senate to restore full funding for Goals 2000.
The Administration urges the Senate to fund Safe and Drug-Free Schools
and Communities (SDFSC) at the President's FY98 request of $620 million,
$64 million above the Senate mark. SDFSC, the largest Federal school-based
drug and violence prevention program, serves more than 40 million students
in over 97 percent of the nation's school districts and is an essential
component of a comprehensive effort to reduce teen drug use.
A number of other high priority Education programs are funded
significantly below the President's request. These include Adult Education,
College Work-Study, Title I Targeted grants, Eisenhower Professional
Development, Charter Schools, 21st Century Learning Centers, and
educational research, statistics, and assessment. We urge the Senate to
fully fund these activities at the levels requested in the President's
FY 1998 Budget.
Department of Health and Human Services
The Administration is deeply concerned that the Committee has failed
to provide $21 million for the Administration's new Adoption Initiative.
The goal of this program is to double the number of children adopted or
permanently placed outside of child welfare systems by FY 2002. The
additional investment is small compared to the potential rewards of placing
children in supportive and loving homes. The Administration strongly urges
the Senate to fully fund this urgently-needed program at the President's
requested level.
The Administration is pleased that the Committee has provided the
requested $40 million increase over FY 1997 for Ryan White AIDS Treatment
Grants, and an additional $41 million that could be used by grantees for
the purchase of AIDS drugs. The Administration is also pleased to see that
the Committee has allocated these funds roughly as requested in the
President's budget, with an additional $38 million in Title II grants to
States which spend a large proportion of the Ryan White grants on primary
care and drugs for people with HIV and AIDS.
The Administration is concerned that the Committee bill does not
appropriate a specific amount for AIDS research through a single
appropriation, as requested in the President's budget for the National
Institutes of Health's (NIH's) Office of AIDS Research. The single
appropriation helps NIH target research funds effectively, minimizing
duplication and inefficiencies across the 21 institutes and centers that
carry out HIV/AIDS research.
The Committee has funded the Health Care Financing Administration
(HCFA) program management activities at $1,719 million, $55 million below
the President's request. The Committee's funding level could hinder HCFA's
efforts to comply with year 2000 systems requirements and perform the CFO
audit. In addition, the Committee's action could make it difficult to
consolidate HCFA's current contractor systems, which needs to occur prior
to, and independent of, final resolution of the Medicare Transaction
System. The requested funds in the President's 1998 budget request are
necessary to implement the Medicare and Medicaid provisions of the Balanced
Budget Agreement, including the savings provisions and new program
authorities, such as Children's Health and the Medical Savings Accounts
(MSAs). To the extent possible, we urge the Senate to fund HCFA program
management at the requested level.
The Committee has rescinded $21 million in mandatory research funds.
The President's request assumes $18 million in discretionary and $21
million in mandatory welfare research funds, for a total of $39 million.
In order to gauge the effects of welfare reform, research is needed now
more than ever. The Administration urges the Senate to drop the rescission
and to fund welfare research at the President's requested level. To ensure
that welfare reform is successfully implemented across the nation, it is
vital that we understand what has been successful and what has not been
successful in the various states.
The Administration supports efforts to encourage minors to discuss
their health care needs with their families. However, it would oppose a
potential amendment on the Senate floor requiring parental consent for
minors to receive reproductive health services in Title X Family Planning
clinics. Mandating parental consent could discourage sexually active
minors from seeking health care and reproductive counseling services and
thus lead to more unwarranted pregnancies, more abortions and more sexually
transmitted diseases, including HIV, among our nation's youth.
Department of Labor
The Bipartisan Budget Agreement specifies funding at the levels
proposed in the President's budget for Training and Employment Services
(TES), including Job Corps. The Committee mark provides the
Administration's request for low-income youth training programs, dislocated
workers, and the Job Corps. However, in order to be consistent with the
Agreement, we urge the Senate to provide an additional $285 million to
fully fund the request for TES programs in FY 1998. The Committee has
provided $250 million in FY 1999 for the Youth Opportunity Area proposal,
subject to enactment of authorizing legislation by April 1, 1998. This
program is an essential component of the Administration's Empowerment
Zones/Enterprise Communities initiative. It may be carried out under
existing legislation, and a separate authorization is not necessary. The
Senate is urged to provide resources for this initiative in FY 1998,
without the restriction provided by the Committee.
The Administration appreciates the Committee's allocation of $150
million to help finance the year 2000 conversion of State Unemployment
Insurance (UI) systems. However, that amount is $50 million below the
level needed to ensure that the year 2000 costs are met. In addition, the
Committee has failed to provide $89 million for spending on UI "integrity"
initiatives (e.g., increased eligibility reviews, tax audits). This
spending is explicitly assumed in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and
would, over five years, achieve $763 million in mandatory savings assumed
in the Act. The Senate is urged to provide this increase and the increase
for year 2000 conversion costs.
On July 17, 1997, the President sent to Congress a budget amendment
for $6.2 million for the Labor Department to administer the $3 billion
Welfare-to-Work program. This program is included in the Balanced Budget
Act of 1997, effective October 1, 1997. We urge the Senate to add these
funds to this appropriation bill so that the administrative resources
needed to move long-term welfare recipients off welfare and into lasting,
unsubsidized employment are available on a timely basis.
The Committee has provided $990 million, an increase of $41 million
over the FY 1997 enacted level, for the Department of Labor workplace
protection programs, about 60 percent of the proposed increase. Without
the requested increases, the Department would not be able to carry out a
balanced program of targeted enforcement, with expanded partnerships and
compliance assistance in the regulated community. Nor would the Department
be able to streamline its operations to provide assistance to small
businesses in complying with various workplace laws and related executive
orders, such as the systems and technical assistance improvements requested
for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance. In addition, the Senate is
urged to provide the requested level for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to
ensure the continued accuracy and reliability of all of the Bureau's
statistical programs. Funding for the independent National Labor Relations
Board has been frozen, a cut of $11 million below the request. The
Administration urges the Senate to enact the Administration's request for
these programs.
Social Security Administration
The Committee has provided $245 million for additional Continuing
Disability Review (CDR) funding and SSI reforms implementation, $45 million
less than the President's request. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997
contains a provision that would provide authority for a $290 million upward
cap adjustment ($45 million more than current law) to the non-defense
discretionary spending caps for funding provided by the Committee for
additional CDRs. This is consistent with the President's request. Failure
to provide the additional funds would mean that some 15 percent fewer
individuals would have their status reviewed in FY 1998, potentially
costing hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits to individuals who
would have been found no longer eligible. We urge the Senate to provide
the additional $45 million.
The Committee has reduced funding for the Office of the Inspector
General (IG) by $7 million from the President's request of $44 million and
for research and demonstration projects by $9.7 million from the
President's request of $16.7 million. The reduction to the IG request
would hamper the IG's ability to perform audits and investigations needed
to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to assure program integrity. The
reduction in research and demonstration funding would reduce SSA's ability
to understand the reasons for growth in the disability programs and
implement initiatives intended to improve SSA's record in returning
disabled beneficiaries to work. The Administration urges the Senate to
restore funding to the maximum extent possible in these two key areas.
Additional Administration concerns with the Committee bill are
contained in the attachment.
Attachment |
