The Clinton-Gore Administration FY2001 Budget

THE CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION FY2001 BUDGET:
MAINTAINING FISCAL DISCIPLINE WHILE MAKING KEY INVESTMENTS

Summary Documents

February 7, 2000

Table of Contents

 

 

I. Summary

 

II. Overall Framework for the FY2001 Budget

 

III. Clinton-Gore Economic Record

 

IV. Highlights of the FY2001 Budget

 

I. SUMMARY

 

THE CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION’S FY2001 BUDGET: MAINTAINING FISCAL DISCIPLINE WHILE INVESTING IN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

 

When President Clinton was elected, he implemented an economic plan which consisted of restoring fiscal discipline, investing in people, and opening markets abroad. The Clinton-Gore Administration are submitting their eighth budget – and their fourth balanced budget. Like the previous budgets, this one not only maintains fiscal discipline but continues to make important investments in the American people.

FISCAL DISCIPLINE: CONTRIBUTING TO THE LONGEST EXPANSION IN U.S. HISTORY

President Clinton entered office determined to unleash the productive potential of the American people by putting the government’s fiscal house back in order. As a result of fiscal discipline, interest rates have fallen and private investment has boomed, contributing to the longest expansion in U.S. history.

A BALANCED AND FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE BUDGET

The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget provides a balanced and fiscally responsible framework to eliminate the debt by 2013, strengthen the solvency of Social Security and Medicare, and invest in key priorities like health and education. Under the President’s budget:

TAX RELIEF FOR WORKING FAMILIES

President Clinton and Vice President Gore proposing significant new tax relief for America’s working families as part of a budget framework that maintains our fiscal discipline, makes investments in key priorities, strengthens the solvency of Social Security and Medicare, and pays down the debt by 2013. The President proposes $351 billion of gross tax cuts over 10 years – of which $256 billion are paid for out of the surplus and $96 billion are paid for with corporate loophole closers and other measures. Highlights of the tax package include:

MOVING FORWARD ON AN INVESTMENT AGENDA

Education and Training:

Child Care:

Health Care:

Environment:

Working Families:

Community Empowerment:

From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity:

Research & Development:

Safe Communities:

United States Leadership in the World:

 

America’s Armed Forces:

 

Restoring Fairness to Legal Immigrants:

Tobacco Policy:

Farm Safety Net:

Building One America:

 

II. OVERALL FRAMEWORK FOR THE FY2001 BUDGET

 

 

 

BUDGET FRAMEWORK

 

President Clinton and Vice President Gore’s propose a balanced and fiscally responsible budget that eliminates the debt, strengthens the solvency of Social Security and Medicare, and invests in key priorities like health and education. By balancing competing needs and maintaining fiscal discipline, the Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget continues the successful strategy that has fostered the longest economic expansion in the Nation’s history. Over 10 years, it uses the entire $2.2 trillion Social Security surplus for debt reduction and devotes nearly half of the $746 billion non-Social Security surplus to debt reduction. Under the President’s budget:

The President’s Balanced and Responsible Budget Will Help Keep the Economy Strong, Building on the Progress That He Has Made in Bringing America’s Fiscal House Back in Order. According to the Office of Management and Budget, in 2000 the debt held by the public will be $2.4 trillion lower than it was projected to be when the President came into office. This achievement has kept interest rates down and confidence and investment up, contributing to the strongest American economy and fiscal position in generations.

President Clinton’s Budget Would Pay Off the National Debt by 2013. President Clinton has proposed to use the entire Social Security surplus, $2.2 trillion over 10 years, for debt reduction. In addition, over the next 10 years he would dedicate $350 billion of the $746 billion non-Social Security surplus to debt reduction. That is nearly half of the non-Social Security surplus being used for debt reduction. The President’s budget is projected to pay off the debt held by the public by 2013, the first time America will have been debt free since 1835. Debt reduction will continue to benefit the economy and American families:

The President’s Budget is Based on a Realistic, Fiscally Conservative Plan That Maintains Our Domestic Priorities, Including National Defense, Education, Law Enforcement, Health, the Environment, and Veterans Programs. The President’s budget precludes the use of emergency spending except in the case of truly unforeseen contingencies, and it makes sure that all spending is accounted for in the appropriate year. The budget proposes realistic, fiscally conservative levels of spending that respond to the Nation’s most pressing needs.

President Clinton Will Strengthen and Modernize Medicare, Extending Its Solvency, While Paying Down the Debt to Prepare for Our Future Obligations. The President’s FY2001 budget dedicates $432 billion over 10 years – an amount equivalent to over half the on-budget surplus – to strengthen and modernize Medicare to prepare it for the health, demographic, and financing challenges of the 21st Century.

President Clinton Has a Fiscally Responsible Plan to Extend the Solvency of Social Security. The President would ensure that the benefits of the debt reduction that are due to Social Security are used to extend the life of Social Security:

The President Is Committed to Fair and Responsible Targeted Tax Cuts for American Families. As part of a balanced and fiscally responsible framework, the President believes that we should have targeted tax cuts for working American families.

 

MEDICARE

 

The Clinton-Gore Administration budget dedicates $432 billion over 10 years – the equivalent of over half of the non-Social Security surplus – to strengthen and modernize Medicare. It includes a new, multi-billion dollar reserve fund that can be used to add protections against catastrophic drug costs to the President’s prescription drug benefit. This financing commitment is part of the comprehensive reform plan that the President unveiled last June which is also included in the budget. This plan makes Medicare more fiscally sound, competitive, and efficient and it modernizes Medicare’s benefits, including the provision of a long-overdue prescription drug benefit. The reforms coupled with the surplus dedication would extend the life of its trust fund by at least 10 years to at least 2025.

Making Medicare More Fiscally Sound, Competitive and Efficient. Since taking office, President Clinton has worked to pass and implement Medicare reforms that, coupled with the strong economy and the Administration’s aggressive anti-fraud and abuse enforcement efforts, have saved hundreds of billions of dollars and helped to extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund from 1999 to 2015. Yet, the doubling of Medicare enrollment with the retirement of the baby boom generation, coupled with the potential return of higher health cost growth in the future, will create unavoidable financing challenges for Medicare. Because the President is committed to not passing this burden on to the next generation, he has proposed a strong plan that not only provides the needed, new financing but provides the program with new private-sector tools and injects competition into the program. Specifically, the plan:

Savings from Medicare total $70 billion over 10 years. The budget preserves its commitment to the Balanced Budget Refinement Act, recognizing that in some cases Balanced Budget Act payment reductions were excessive. This budget’s savings are about 33 percent less than the budget and reform plan savings proposed last year.

Modernizing Medicare’s Benefits. Unlike virtually all private health plans, Medicare does not cover prescription drugs. Over three in five lack dependable insurance coverage for drugs. As such, those with the highest need pay the highest prices. The President’s budget adds a long-overdue prescription drug benefit, and also improves preventive services and rationalizes cost sharing. Specifically, the plan:

 

SOCIAL SECURITY

 

The Clinton-Gore Administration FY2001 budget proposes a plan to extend the solvency of Social Security. For almost 65 years, Social Security has been an unshakable covenant among generations. It provides a bond between workers and retirees, between the disabled and the able bodied. The President’s proposal would build on this historic period of prosperity and budget surpluses to strengthen Social Security. The President’s plan reserves the entire Social Security surplus for Social Security and debt reduction, and earmarks the benefits of paying down the debt held by the public to extend the solvency of Social Security. According to projections by the independent Office of the Actuary at the Social Security Administration, the President’s proposed transfers would extend the solvency of Social Security to 2050. If a prudent portion of the transfers were invested for higher returns, solvency would be extended to 2054. The President’s plan to strengthen Social Security is a central part of his fiscally disciplined framework to pay off the debt held by the public by 2013.

Social Security is the Cornerstone of our Retirement System. Social Security is the principal source of retirement income for two-thirds of the elderly. In 1959, the poverty rate for senior citizens was 35.2 percent. In 1998, it was 10.5 percent – the lowest on record. Last year, Social Security benefits lifted roughly 15 million senior citizens out of poverty, but it must be noted that poverty remains too high for widows and other groups. And Social Security is more than just a retirement program. One in five beneficiaries is under the age of 62, receiving either disability benefits or survivors benefits.

Social Security is Projected to Become Insolvent By the End of 2034 As a Result of Demographic Pressures. Currently, Social Security takes in more payroll taxes than it pays out in benefits, and is building up its trust fund to pay future beneficiaries. But, as the baby boomers retire and life expectancies continue to rise, the number of people age 65 and over is projected to double – from 35 million in 1998 to 72 million in 2035. In 1960, there were 5.1 covered workers for every Social Security beneficiary. In 1999 there were only 3.4 workers for every beneficiary. And by 2035, there are projected to be only 2.0 workers for every beneficiary.

The President’s Plan Devotes Social Security Surpluses to Debt Reduction. The President’s proposal devotes the entire Social Security surplus to paying down the debt held by the public. This is projected to reduce the debt held by the public by $2.2 trillion over the next 10 years and produce interest savings.

The President Uses the Interest Savings To Extend the Solvency of Social Security. Although the so-called lockboxes proposed by Republicans would have used any interest savings to pay for an exploding tax cut, the President proposes to use the interest savings for the purpose of extending the solvency of Social Security. As an additional safeguard for fiscal responsibility, the President proposes to limit the amount of the transfers to the available on-budget surpluses that are currently projected to result from the President’s fiscally disciplined framework.

The President’s Plan Transfers the Interest Savings to the Social Security Trust Fund From 2011 to 2050. The Social Security actuaries project that the interest savings that would occur from the reduction in publicly held debt due to transfers alone would total $99 billion in 2011 and grow to $205 billion in 2016. Under the intermediate projections of the Social Security Trustees, these potential interest savings would be transferred in full to the Social Security trust fund. Transfers would stay at the 2016 level through 2050. The total transfers in the first 5 years (2011-2015), as projected by the Social Security actuaries, would be $690 billion.

The President’s Plan Extends Solvency to at Least 2050. The Social Security trust fund is currently expected to be unable to pay benefits in full on a timely basis starting in 2034. According to projections by the Social Security actuaries, the President’s proposes interest savings transfers would extend solvency to 2050. This is an extra 16 years added to the life of the trust fund. To put Social Security on an even firmer financial footing, the President also provides the option of allowing a limited and prudent portion of the transfers to be invested independently and without political interference in broad-based equity indexes. Under this plan, the Social Security actuaries project that the Social Security trust fund would hold about 3 percent of the total market value, on average, over the 30-year period 2011 through 2040. The combination of prudent investment in equities and the transfers is projected to extend the life of the trust fund to 2054.

Addressing Widow Poverty and Eliminating the Retirement Earnings Test. The President believes that, in the context of longer-term reforms, it is essential to improve the effectiveness of Social Security in combating widow poverty and to modernize it by eliminating the outdated retirement earnings test.

The President’s Plan Provides a Foundation on Which to Build. The President remains committed to working together with Congress on a bipartisan basis to enact reforms that make Social Security solvent for at least 75 years. The President’s proposal provides a sound starting point for such an agreement.

 

NEW OPPORTUNITY AGENDA

 

The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget proposes a coherent program to build on the Nation’s economic prosperity and expand its reach to every corner of America through an agenda rooted in three core values: community, opportunity and responsibility. It comprises a range of programs designed to ensure that working families have the tools and the opportunity to succeed.

REWARDING WORK AND HELPING FAMILIES

PROMOTING OPPORTUNITY AND RESPONSIBILITY IN EDUCATION

OPENING NEW MARKETS AND STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

 

HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

 

The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget includes a 10-year, $110 billion initiative that would dramatically improve the affordability of and access to health insurance. Over 44 million Americans lack health insurance, and this has serious consequences. The uninsured are three times likelier than the privately insured not to receive needed medical care, and 50 to 70 percent more likely to need hospitalization for avoidable hospital conditions like pneumonia or uncontrolled diabetes. The President’s proposal would expand coverage to at least 5 million uninsured Americans and expand access to millions more. Together with the State Children’s Health Initiative enacted in 1997, that could cover nearly a quarter of all the uninsured people in America. It addresses the nation’s multi-faceted coverage challenges by building on and complementing current private and public programs. Specifically, the initiative will: (1) provide a new, affordable health insurance option for families; (2) accelerate enrollment of uninsured children eligible for Medicaid and S-CHIP, which helps children in families with income too high to be eligible for Medicaid but too low to afford private insurance; (3) expand health insurance options for Americans facing unique barriers to coverage; and (4) strengthen programs that provide health care directly to the uninsured. In addition, the President has proposed a $28 billion initiative to address the Nation’s long-term care needs which, together with the health coverage initiative, would bring the cost to $138 billion over 10 years.

Providing a New, Affordable Health Insurance Option for Families ($76 billion over 10 years, about 4 million uninsured covered). Over 80 percent of parents of uninsured children with incomes below 200 percent of poverty (about $33,000 for a family of four) are themselves uninsured. Yet, while states have aggressively expanded insurance options for children through Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), parents are often left behind. There are about 6.5 million uninsured parents with income in the Medicaid and S-CHIP eligibility range for children. These parents frequently do not have access to employer-based insurance, and when they do, cannot afford it. Recognizing that family coverage not only helps a large proportion of the nation’s uninsured adults but also increases the enrollment of children, the President, Vice President, the National Governors’ Association, and a wide rage of groups including Families USA and the Health Insurance Association of America have called for building on S-CHIP to cover parents. The Administration’s budget adopts this approach by:

Accelerating Enrollment of Uninsured Children Eligible for Medicaid and S-CHIP ($5.5 billion over 10 years, an additional 400,000 uninsured children covered). Enrollment in S-CHIP doubled to 2 million children in 1999. Despite this encouraging trend, millions of children remain eligible but unenrolled in both S-CHIP and Medicaid. The Administration’s budget includes ideas advocated by the Vice President that would give states needed tools to increase coverage by:

Expanding Health Insurance Options for Americans Facing Unique Barriers to Coverage ($28.5 billion over 10 years, about 600,000 uninsured people covered). Some vulnerable groups of Americans often lack access to employer-sponsored insurance and insurance programs like Medicare or Medicaid. These include older Americans, people in transitions (between jobs, turning 19 and entering the workforce, leaving welfare for work), and workers in small businesses. This plan addresses these specific and other problems by:

Strengthening Programs that Provide Health Care Directly to the Uninsured (At least $1 billion over 10 years). Public hospitals, clinics, and thousands of health care providers give health care of the uninsured and receive inadequate compensation for doing so. Despite a rising need, reductions in government spending and aggressive cost cutting by private insurers has left less money in the health care system to address these needs. The President will renew his commitment to helping these providers by:

 

TARGETED TAX RELIEF

President Clinton has worked to deliver tax relief to America’s working families. In 1993, the President delivered a tax cut to 15 million working Americans through an expanded EITC. Then, in 1997, the President delivered a $500 child tax credit, $1,500 Hope Scholarships to make the first years of college universally available, and expanded IRAs. The result: the lowest Federal tax burden in more than two decades for a typical middle-income family. To build on this record of tax relief for working families, President Clinton is proposing significant new tax relief for America’s working families as part of a budget framework that maintains fiscal discipline, makes investments in key priorities, strengthens the solvency of Social Security and Medicare, and pays down the debt by 2013. The President proposes $351 billion of gross tax cuts over 10 years – of which $256 billion are paid for out of the surplus and $96 billion are paid for with corporate loophole closers and other measures.

MAKING RETIREMENT MORE SECURE BY ENCOURAGING SAVINGS

REWARDING WORK AND FAMILY

EXPANDING EDUCATION INCENTIVES

MAKING HEALTH CARE MORE AFFORDABLE

HELPING FAMILIES AFFORD CHILD CARE

OPENING NEW MARKETS & EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES

INCREASING ENERGY EFFICIENCY & IMPROVING THE ENVIRONMENT

ENCOURAGING CHARITABLE GIVING

CURBING CORPORATE SHELTERS AND REDUCING UNWARRANTED TAX SUBSIDIES

The President also proposes sound tax policies, including proposals to curb corporate tax shelters and reductions in unwarranted tax subsidies, which pay for $96 billion of the targeted tax cuts over 10 years. Tax shelters require taxes for everyone else to be higher and create perceptions of unfairness and disrespect for the system. The budget increases disincentives for entering into abusive transactions and attacks specific tax shelter transactions. The Department of the Treasury will continue to study additional remedies for corporate tax shelters and will work with Congress to address this issue.

 

 

III. THE CLINTON-GORE ECONOMIC RECORD

 

THE CLINTON-GORE ECONOMIC RECORD:
WHAT A DIFFERENCE SEVEN YEARS MAKES

 

After seven years, the results of President Clinton and Vice President Gore’s economic leadership for the American people are clear. In 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected President, the American economy was barely creating jobs and wages were stagnant. His bold, three-part economic strategy focused on establishing fiscal discipline; investing in education, health care, science and technology; and opening foreign markets so that American workers have a fair chance to compete abroad. Seven years later the results of this strategy are clear:

Deficits Replace By Surpluses: Keeping Us On Track to Be Debt Free by 2013

Government Spending: Lowest in Over Three Decades

Taxes for Typical Families: Lowest in Over Two Decades

Jobs Are Up: Nearly 21 Million Created Since January 1993

Faster Economic Growth: 3.9 Percent Per Year

Private-Sector Growth Is Up: 4.4 Percent Per Year

Equipment and Software Investment Is Growing Faster Than Ever

Homeownership Is Up: The Highest in American History

Inflation is Down: The Lowest Core Rate In 35 Years

Welfare Rolls Dropped Dramatically: Lowest Since 1969

Unemployment Is Down: The Lowest Rate in 30 Years

Unemployment for African Americans the Lowest on Record

Unemployment for Hispanics Recovered From Record Highs to Achieve Record Lows

Real Wages Rising Again: Fastest Growth in Two Decades

Poverty For African-Americans Dropped to Lowest On Record

Poverty For Hispanics Dropped to Lowest Since 1979

Poverty For Single Mothers is the Lowest On Record

Family Income Up More Than $5,000 Since 1993

 

 

THE CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION:
PAYING OFF THE DEBT BY 2013

 

The Clinton-Gore Administrations’ FY2001 budget proposes a plan to keep America on track to pay off the debt by 2013. An era of deficits has given way to an era of surpluses, with the unified budget surplus projected to rise to $167 billion this year – the largest surplus ever and the third unified surplus in a row. The budget also projects the on-budget surplus, which excludes Social Security, to be $19 billion in FY2000 – the second consecutive on-budget surplus. The President’s budget builds on this historic fiscal strength with a plan to invest in key priorities like education and health, strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and pay down the debt by 2013.

LARGEST UNIFIED SURPLUS EVER

LARGEST DEBT REDUCTION EVER

REDUCING SPENDING WHILE CUTTING TAXES FOR MIDDLE-INCOME FAMILIES

WHAT FISCAL DISCIPLINE MEANS FOR AMERICA

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

Experts agree that President Clinton’s 1993 economic plan helped reduce the deficit, lower interest rates, spur business investment, and strengthen the economy. The economy and the budget are now working in a virtuous circle – lower deficits have led to lower interest rates which have led to faster business investment which led to faster growth which led to even lower deficits. Experts agree that the President’s 1993 Economic Plan helped create this virtuous circle:

 

A SMALLER BUT MORE PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENT

 

President Clinton and Vice President Gore have cut Federal spending and cut the Federal workforce, reversing twelve years when the Republicans exploded the deficit and more than quadrupled the debt. At the same time, the Clinton-Gore Administration has made investments in everything from education to science and technology to health care to tax relief for working families.

PAYING OFF THE DEBT BY 2013

LOWEST GOVERNMENT SPENDING IN OVER THREE DECADES

SMALLEST FEDERAL WORKFORCE IN 40 YEARS

LOWEST TAXES FOR MIDDLE-INCOME FAMILIES IN OVER TWO DECADES

 

IV. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FY2001 BUDGET

 

 

 

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

 

Education and training have been a cornerstone of the Clinton-Gore Administration’s agenda since 1993. The President’s initiatives have helped to provide students with the educational opportunities they need to reach high standards, enhanced the quality of teaching, made college more affordable for all Americans, and offered lifetime education and training opportunities to those in need. The President’s FY2001 budget builds on these efforts and offers new initiatives to improve the educational and training opportunities needed for a strong economy and healthy communities. At the core of these proposals is a basic principal: we must invest more in our schools and demand more from them.

Proposing the Largest Head Start Expansion in History. The President’s budget increases funding for Head Start by $1 billion – the largest funding increase ever proposed for the program – to provide Head Start and Early Head Start to approximately 950,000 children. This funding will bring within reach the President’s goal of serving one million children in 2002 and builds the foundation for the long-term goal of universal pre-school. Early Head Start, created by the Clinton-Gore Administration in 1994, brings these services to families with children ages zero to three and to pregnant women. The President’s FY2001 proposal would increase funding for Early Head Start by $143 million. Since 1993, this Administration has already increased funding for Head Start by 90 percent.

Fixing Failing Schools and Rewarding Success. The President believes that we must not only demand more from our schools, we must also invest more in them. The following initiatives provide resources and incentives to help all students meet high academic standards:

Teaching to High Standards. This initiative is a new $1 billion teacher quality plan to recruit, train and reward good teachers. The Teaching to High Standards Initiative will give grants to states and districts to fund high-quality, standards-based professional development for teachers. It also includes several new proposals:

Special Education. The President’s budget proposes nearly $6.4 billion to support the education of children with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This increase includes almost $300 million to help states and local school districts educate children with disabilities, as well as an increase of more than $30 million in competitive grants, including funds for states to help schools comply with IDEA. Funding for special education has more than doubled since 1993.

Charter Schools. The President’s budget will increase funding for charter schools by $30 million dollars from $145 million to $175 million. Charter schools are public schools that are open to all and given a great deal of flexibility in exchange for agreeing to meet defined goals for student performance. With 1,700 charter schools now in operation, this funding will help reach the President’s goal of 3,000 charter schools by 2002.

College Test Preparation for Low-Income Students. This $10 million initiative will provide rigorous SAT/ACT college preparation programs to low-income students. Competitive grants would be given to partnerships that would provide college preparatory services to college-bound students.

Challenging Coursework Online. This $10 million initiative will support the development of high quality, Web-based Advanced Placement, second language, and other challenging courses. The program will provide grants of up to three years to partnerships for research, development and evaluation of innovative technologies that can help provide high-quality learning experiences for all students no matter where their school is located.

School Construction and Modernization. President Clinton is renewing his commitment to his School Modernization Bonds by proposing $24.8 billion in tax credit bonds over two years to modernize up to 6,000 schools. Within this $24.8 billion program, $2.4 billion is reserved for Qualified Zone Academy Bonds. In addition, the budget includes a new $1.3 billion urgent/emergency school renovation loan and grant proposal. This proposal would cost $8 billion over 10 years.

College Opportunity Tax Cut. The College Opportunity Tax Cut expands the President’s Lifetime Learning tax credit in order to make college, graduate school, and job training more affordable for millions of families. The proposal would give families, for the first time, the option of taking a tax deduction or a 28 percent tax credit on tuition and fees to pay for college and other higher education. This is worth nearly twice as much as a deduction for families in the 15 percent bracket. The proposal would cover up to $5,000 of educational expenses in 2001 and 2002 and rise to $10,000 of educational expenses from 2003 forward. This proposal would provide up to $2,800 in tax relief annually to help American families pay for college, graduate work, or courses taken to improve job skills. This proposal will provide families with $30 billion in tax relief over the next 10 years.

Increasing Support for College Access. In the new economy, education is the key to economic opportunity. The FY2001 budget includes a nearly $1 billion boost in investments to make college more affordable for economically disadvantaged students.

Keeping Young People On Track for Success. Students not only need help to pay for college, they need support to enter and complete college. The President’s FY2001 budget includes an increase of more than $400 million for programs designed to prepare students to take full advantage of post-secondary opportunities.

Investments in Job Training to Ensure Economic Opportunity. The President’s FY2001 budget expands successful training programs and implements new ones focused on providing needed training for young people, displaced workers and individuals with disabilities.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) School Construction and Repair. The President has proposed $300 million, more than double the FY2000 enacted level of $133 million, to replace and repair BIA-funded schools on reservations. This is the largest investment ever in a single year for BIA school construction and repair. Of these funds, $126 million would be used to assist in replacing at least six of the 185 BIA-funded schools on reservations. The remaining $174 million would provide for much-needed health and safety-related repairs, improvements, and maintenance that together comprise a roughly $700 million backlog.

Training and Recruiting New Native American Teachers. Only two-thirds of Native American students successfully complete high school. To address this challenges the budget provides $10 million for the Education Department to continue the second year of the Administration’s initiative to begin training and recruiting 1,000 new teachers to serve in schools with high concentrations of American Indian and Alaska Native students.

New American Indian Administrator Corps. The President and the Vice President propose $5 million for a new Department of Education initiative, the American Indian Administrator Corps, that will support the recruitment, training, and in-service professional development of 500 American Indians and Alaska Natives to become effective school administrators in schools with high populations of Native American students. As in the Native American teacher initiative, higher-education institutions are encouraged to form consortia with the tribal colleges in order to develop this program.

 

CHILD CARE

 

The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget includes a comprehensive child care initiative to address the struggles our nation’s working parents face in finding child care they can afford, trust and rely on. Through unprecedented tax relief and subsidy support, the President’s balanced budget includes a package of proposals to help working families pay for child care, improve the safety and quality of care, expand after-school programs and promote early learning.

The number of children with parents who work outside of the home is higher than ever before. In 1996, three out of four mothers with young children worked outside of the home, compared to one in four in 1965. During the Clinton-Gore Administration, funding for child care has more than doubled. Still, many eligible children do not receive assistance.

Tax Relief for Over 8 Million Families with Child Care Expenses. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) provides tax relief to those who, in order to work, pay for the care of a child under 13 or for a disabled dependent or spouse. The President’s proposals, which cost $30 billion over 10 years, broaden this tax relief and will help over 8 million families pay their child care expenses:

Proposing the Largest Head Start Expansion in History. The President’s budget increases funding for Head Start by $1 billion – the largest funding increase ever proposed for the program – to provide Head Start and Early Head Start to approximately 950,000 children. Head Start prepares low-income children for a lifetime of learning by providing early, comprehensive child development services.

Universal After-School for Students in the Most Need. The President and Vice President propose to invest $1 billion in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program to help ensure that every child in every failing school can have a safe place to learn during the after- school and summertime hours. This more than doubles the FY2000 investment. The Administration’s budget will maintain the commitment to serving all children, but will dedicate much of the increase to help those children most in need of academic assistance as part of a comprehensive approach to help low-achieving students meet high academic standards. The budget provides sufficient funding to make after- or summer-school programs universally available to all students attending Title I school identified as low-performing, nearly tripling the number of children served by the program to 2.5 million.

Helping Low-Income Families Afford Child Care. The President’s budget boosts the Child Care and Development Block Grant by $817 million in FY2001, enabling the program to provide child care subsidies to nearly 150,000 more children next year. These new funds, combined with the child care funds provided in welfare reform, will enable the program to serve over 2.2 million children in 2001, an increase of nearly one million since 1997.

Promoting Early Learning. The President’s budget includes $3 billion over five years for the Early Learning Fund to help improve child care quality and early childhood education for children under five years old. The Early Learning Fund will provide community grants for activities that foster cognitive development, improve child care quality and promote readiness for school. Resources could be used to help child care providers get training or certification, facilitate licensing or accreditation of child care centers, and reduce child-to-staff ratios.

Supporting High-Quality Early Childhood Educators. The President’s budget includes $30 million to ensure that well-trained professionals are teaching our young children. The Early Childhood Professional Development initiative will provide competitive grants to local partnerships that can pull together universities, local school districts and child care providers. The initiative would focus on equipping early childhood educators with the tools they need to help children develop vital language and literacy skills.

Supporting Parents in Higher Education by Offering College Campus Based Child Care. To help low-income parents pursue higher education, the President’s budget includes $15 million – a $10 million increase over last year’s funding level – to provide an additional 150 college campuses with grants to support the establishment or expansion of child care services. States may also use a share of the Child Care and Development Block Grant for this purpose.

Creating New Child Care Tax Incentives for Businesses. In his budget, President Clinton will also propose a new tax credit for businesses that provide child care services for their employees. These services could include: building or expanding child care facilities, operating existing facilities, training child care workers, or providing child care resource and referral services. The credit covers 25 percent of qualified costs (and 10 percent of resource and referral service expenses), but may not exceed $150,000 per year per business. This tax credit costs $1.4 billion over 10 years.

 

 

HEALTH CARE

 

The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget includes investments to address the nation’s long-term care needs, improve the quality of care, expand the Administration’s commitment to biomedical research, and safeguard and improve the public health.

Addressing the Nation’s Multi-faceted Long-term Care Needs. The President’s FY2001 budget will include a $28 billion, 10-year investment in long-term care. The initiative tackles the complex problem of long-term care that affects millions of elderly, people with disabilities, children with special needs and the families who care for them. Its centerpiece is a $3,000 tax credit for people with long-term care needs or their caregivers – the budget triples the credit over last year’s proposal. In addition to the tax credit, the initiative will: (1) provide funding for services which support family caregivers of older persons; (2) improve equity in Medicaid eligibility for people in home- and community-based settings; (3) encourage partnerships between low-income housing for the elderly and Medicaid; and (4) encourage the purchase of quality private long-term care insurance by Federal employees. This initiative complements the Administration’s effort, spearheaded by the Vice President, to improve the quality of care in nursing homes.

Assuring the Quality of Health Care. Since he took office, President Clinton has been aggressive in his efforts to promote patients’ rights and ensure the delivery of high-quality health care.

New Initiatives. The President’s FY2001 budget includes new initiatives to improve health care quality.

Supporting Biomedical Research. The President’s FY2001 budget includes almost $19 billion, an increase of $1 billion over last year’s funding level, for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Two years ago, the President called for an increase of almost 50 percent over 5 years in the NIH budget as part of his Research for America Fund. Since that time, the NIH budget has increased by over $4.3 billion and with the funding proposed by the President this year, the Administration will be one year ahead of schedule in reaching the 50 percent goal. As a result, NIH now supports the highest levels of research ever on nearly all types of disease and health conditions. In addition, the budget proposes to repeal the provision enacted for 2000, which would delay the availability of 2000 funds for NIH and other HHS programs.

Safeguarding and Improving the Public Health. President Clinton’s FY2001 budget affirms the Administration’s commitment to improving public health and invests in several priorities including: new efforts to combat HIV and AIDS; food safety programs; additional efforts to combat emerging infectious diseases; family planning efforts nationwide; efforts to promote childhood immunizations; a Medicare demonstration project on cancer clinical trials; mental health and substance abuse prevention activities; and improving the nation’s response to the threat of bioterrorism.

 

ENVIRONMENT

The Clinton-Gore Administration FY2001 budget proposes a record $42.5 billion in FY2001 to protect our natural resources, our communities and families, and the global environment. The proposed environment budget represents an 11 percent increase over FY2000 and a 36 percent increase over FY 1993. It includes major initiatives to preserve America’s lands legacy, combat global warming, protect tropical forests, end childhood lead poisoning, and build more livable communities

A Permanent Lands Legacy for America. In FY2000, the President secured $652 million, a 42 percent increase for his Lands Legacy initiative. For FY2001, the President is proposing $1.4 billion, the largest one-year investment ever in conserving America’s land and coastal resources. In addition, the President is proposing a new, protected budget category to preserve this higher level of funding in future years. More than half this dedicated funding would be used to support state and local conservation efforts. For FY2001, the President proposes:

Meeting the Challenge of Global Warming. The President is proposing $2.4 billion – a 42 percent increase – to combat global climate change, and $1.7 billion for scientific research into factors influencing climate and the likely consequences of global warming. Highlights include:

Protecting Forests and Biodiversity Around the World. The President is proposing $150 million for a new Greening the Globe initiative to help stem the loss of forests worldwide – especially tropical forests, which support more than half the known species on earth. The initiative will help developing nations strengthen their economies by preserving their forests. It includes:

Building Livable Communities. The President is proposing $9.3 billion, a 14 percent increase, for the Administration’s Livable Communities initiative, which helps communities grow in ways that enhance their quality of life and ensure strong, sustainable economic growth. Priorities include:

Protecting Children From Lead Poisoning. The President is proposing $165 million to launch a 10-year strategy to end childhood lead poisoning by eliminating lead hazards, strengthening enforcement, advancing research, and improving health monitoring and intervention. FY2001 priorities include:

Promoting Conservation on the Farm. The President is proposing $3 billion, a $1.3 billion increase over currently authorized levels, for voluntary programs that help farmers protect water quality and wildlife habitat. A new $600 million Conservation Security Program would provide additional income to family farmers who adopt comprehensive plans to curb erosion and protect water supplies from polluted runoff. Other proposed increases would expand efforts to restore habitat, preserve streamside buffer zones, and protect farmland threatened by sprawl.

Restoring the Great Lakes. The President is proposing a new $50 million initiative to help state and local governments restore polluted "areas of concern" in the Great Lakes so they can be used for fishing, swimming, boating and urban redevelopment. Matching grants could be used to clean up contaminated sediments, control stormwater, restore wetlands, acquire greenways and buffers, and control polluted runoff. State or local governments would provide at least 40 percent of project costs, resulting in a total investment of more than $80 million.

 

WORKING FAMILIES

Since 1993, the Clinton-Gore Administration has worked hard to reduce poverty and increase opportunity for our most disadvantaged families. The overall poverty rate fell to 12.7 percent in 1998, with 7.7 million fewer people in poverty than in 1993. The child poverty rate has declined from 22.7 percent to 18.9 percent – the largest five year drop in nearly 30 years. But despite the strongest economy in a generation, there are still millions of workers struggling to raise a family and make ends meet. The President believes that parents who work hard and play by the rules should not have to raise their children in poverty. President Clinton’s FY2001 budget proposes to create new initiatives and expand upon existing programs to help give working families the opportunities they need to partake of our country’s prosperity.

Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to Even Better Reward Work and Family. President Clinton proposes a $23 billion plan to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to reward work and family. According to estimates by the Department of the Treasury, this EITC expansion would provide tax relief for 6.8 million hard-pressed working families, providing up to $1,200 in additional tax relief for some of them. The President’s proposal would build on his 1993 EITC expansion, which provided a tax cut for 15 million families and made EITC even more effective at encouraging work and reducing poverty, by:

Increasing the Minimum Wage. The President again proposes a $1 increase in the minimum wage. This proposal, which builds upon President Clinton’s 1996 minimum wage increase, would help 10 million Americans – 70 percent of whom are adults and 60 percent of whom are women. For a full-time, year-round worker at the minimum wage, this would mean an additional $2,000 per year.

Individual Development Accounts. Since 1992, the President has supported the creation of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) to empower individuals to save for a first home, post-secondary education, or to start a new business. In 1998, the President signed into law legislation authorizing a five-year $125 million demonstration program. The President’s budget provides $25 million for IDAs in FY2001. The Administration will also propose to allow low-income working families to use IDAs to save for a car that will allow them to get or keep a job.

Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) To Help Families Save and Invest And Expand Pension Coverage for Small Businesses. The President’s Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) proposal will give 76 million Americans the opportunity to build wealth and save for their retirement through a progressive tax cut. This proposal builds on the successful model of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), extending generous matches to all low- and moderate-income families to encourage them to develop savings and assets. A person who participated for 40 years in this savings program could accumulate over $266,000 – enough to produce $24,000 a year of income in retirement. This proposal would cost $54 billion over 10 years.

Tax Incentives For Small Businesses To Offer High-Quality Pension Coverage. In an effort to encourage more small businesses to offer pensions for their employees, the budget provides for a 50 percent tax credit for three years of qualified contributions to employees’ pensions. This provision would cost $17 billion over 10 years.

Reducing the Marriage Penalty for Married, Two-Earner Couples By Increasing the Standard Deduction by More Than $2,000. The President will propose to increase the standard deduction for two-income married couples to twice that of single filers, providing substantial tax relief for 9.1 million married couples. When fully phased in, this change would result in a $2,150 increase in the standard deduction. The President’s proposal would also increase the standard deduction by $500 for single-earner married couples and by $250 for single filers. Both elements of the President’s plan would cost $45 billion over 10 years and benefit 42.1 million families.

Alternative Minimum Tax Relief: The President will propose in his budget a $33 billion proposal over 10 years to correct serious design flaws in the individual Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) that increasingly hurt middle-income families with children who play by the rules. It complicates their tax preparation and raises their tax bills. The President’s proposal will take over 9 million families per year off the AMT when fully phased in.

Helping Families Afford to Take Family Leave. The President’s budget includes a $20 million family leave initiative to fund roughly 15 competitive planning grants for states and other interested entities to explore ways to make parental leave and other forms of family leave more affordable and accessible for American workers. Today, many workers face barriers, such as financial barriers, to taking advantage of unpaid leave. A 1996 Study by the Commission on Family and Medical Leave found that loss of wages was the most significant barrier to parents taking advantage of unpaid leave following the birth or adoption of a child. The President’s budget request will enable states and others to identify in more detail the workers who need financial assistance to take parental leave or other forms of family leave and to evaluate and develop options to aid these workers.

Helping Low-Income Working Families Get to Work. Transportation to work is a barrier for many low-income families. Some families need a car to get to work, but owning a car can often be the one item that makes a household ineligible for food stamps. The President’s budget will make it easier for working families to own a reliable vehicle and receive food stamps by allowing states to conform their food stamp vehicle policy with a more generous TANF vehicle policy. The Administration will also propose to allow low-income working families to use IDAs to save for a car that will allow them to get or keep a job. In addition, the Administration supports expanding public transit as a reliable form of transportation. The budget proposes to double Access to Jobs transportation funding to $150 million to expand grants to communities to develop innovative public transportation solutions that help more low-income workers and welfare recipients get to work.

Helping Millions Move from Welfare to Work. In 1992, President Clinton promised to end welfare as we know it, and now more than three years after the enactment of the welfare reform law, we’ve seen revolutionary changes to promote work and responsibility: the number of Americans on welfare is at its lowest level since 1969 – 30 years ago as millions of people move from welfare to work. Since January 1993, the welfare rolls have fallen by more than half, from 14.1 million to 6.9 million. More than 1.3 million welfare recipients went to work in 1998 alone. The 12,000 business participating in the Welfare to Work Partnership launched by the President in 1997 have hired nearly 650,000 former welfare recipients. The Federal government is also doing its share: in 1997, the President asked the Vice President to lead the Federal hiring initiative to hire 10,000 welfare recipients over four years, and today, we’ve far exceeded that goal, hiring more than 16,000 people at a time when the Federal workforce is the smallest it has been in thirty years.

Helping More Long-term Recipients Move from Welfare to Work. Because of the President’s leadership, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act included $1.5 billion in each of years 1998 and 1999 for Welfare-to-Work grants to help long-term welfare recipients and certain non-custodial parents go to work and support their children. Currently, grantees have up to three years to spend the funds and fully implement these important efforts. The President’s budget allows grantees an additional two years to spend these existing funds.

Ensuring Equal Pay. According to the Department of Labor, the average woman who works full-time earns approximately 75 cents for each dollar that an average man earns. For women of the color, the gap is even wider. This gap is attributable, in part, to differing levels of experience, education, and skill. However, even after accounting for these factors, a significant pay gap still remains between men and women in similar jobs. On January 24, the President announced a $27 million Equal Pay Initiative in his FY2001 budget, an increase of $12 million over FY2000. The Initiative requests $10 million for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to provide training and technical assistance to about 3,000 employers on how to comply with equal pay requirements and to launch a public service announcement campaign on wage issues. The Initiative also dedicates $10 million for the Department of Labor (DOL) to train women in nontraditional jobs, including high-tech jobs and other skill shortage occupations. Lastly, the Initiative provides $7 million for DOL to help employers assess and improve their pay policies, support public education efforts, provide for projects in non-traditional apprenticeships, and implement industry partnerships. The President also called on Congress again to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would strengthen wage discrimination laws, provide for new collection of data on wage issues, and provide for additional research, training, and public education efforts on this important subject.

Creating Initiatives to Collect More Child Support. Since the President took office, child support collections have nearly doubled, from $8 billion in 1992 to $15.5 billion in 1999. Today, parents who owe child support have their wages garnished, their bank accounts seized, and their tax refunds withheld. To build on this success, the budget contains several new measures to get parents to pay the child support they owe and to ensure more support goes directly to families. Parents who owe past-due child support will have their gambling winnings intercepted. If they are delinquent, they will have their vehicles booted, they will have a harder time obtaining or renewing a passport, and they can be prohibited from enrolling as a Medicare provider. The proposals also provide incentives for states to pass through more child support payments directly to families, so that families leaving welfare can keep all the payments, and families still working their way off can keep up to $100 a month. Finally, the budget will require that child support orders be updated more frequently. In total, these initiatives will bring in nearly $2 billion more for families.

Fathers Work/Families Win Grants. The President’s budget will contain $255 million in new competitive grants in FY2001 to promote responsible fatherhood and support working families, critical next steps in reforming welfare and reducing child poverty. This budget will encourage responsible fatherhood through $125 million in "Fathers Work" grants to put approximately 40,000 non-custodial parents (mainly fathers) who owe child support to work and help them connect with their children. As part of this effort, states will need to put in place procedures allowing them to require more parents who owe child support to pay or go to work. The President’s budget will also contain $130 million in "Families Win" grants to help about 40,000 low-income parents stay in their jobs, move up the career ladder, and remain off cash assistance. An important part of these grants will be to improve families’ access to food stamps, health care, childcare, and other critical support for working families. Of these amounts, $10 million will be set-aside for applicants from Native American workforce agencies. This proposal complements other budget initiatives to ensure that low-income working families have access to the health care coverage and nutritional assistance they need.

Second Chance Homes. The budget includes $25 million in new funds to support "second chance homes," adult-supervised and supportive living arrangements, for unmarried teen parents and their children who cannot live at home or with other relatives. States will be able to use these funds, as they can other Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) funds, to support services provided by faith-based and community-based organizations. (Overall, the budget increases SSBG funds by $75 million over current law.) This new initiative will be the latest of the Administration’s efforts to break the cycle of dependency and reduce teen pregnancy, which have resulted in the lowest teen pregnancy rates on record and an 18 percent decline in teen birth rates from 1991 to 1998.

Homeless Initiative. Homeless persons do not participate fully in important health and other programs for which they are eligible. The President’s budget proposes legislation for a new $10 million initiative that would improve homeless individuals’ access to mainstream programs that will help them move toward self-sufficiency. Demonstration grants would be awarded to several states to improve access to and provide coordination among mainstream programs such as Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Food Stamps, the Workforce Investment Act, and the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Block Grants. The budget also proposes $1.2 billion for homeless assistance programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, including $105 million for 18,000 homeless vouchers.

 

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

 

The United States is currently in the midst of the longest expansion in its history. The strength and duration of this expansion have helped bring economic opportunity to millions of people once cut off from the economic mainstream. But too many urban and rural areas have not participated in this growth. Working with the private sector and state and local governments, the President is committed to help these communities participate in our country’s economic prosperity. The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget proposes an expanded New Markets initiative and Empowerment Zone program, a new program known as First Accounts, creation of the new Delta Regional Authority, new initiatives to close the Digital Divide, efforts to expand opportunities to Native Americans as well as other programs that will provide distressed communities with additional opportunities to succeed.

The New Markets Initiative. The President’s budget provides tax credits and loans guarantee incentives to stimulate $22 billion of new private capital investments in economically distressed communities around the country and build a network of private investment institutions to funnel credit, equity and technical assistance to businesses in America’s new markets. In addition, the budget proposes a new initiative, known as First Accounts that will provide low-cost bank accounts for working families.

NMVC firms to match the equity of private investors with Government-guaranteed debt and technical assistance funding to cultivate the growth of smaller firms. NMVC would invest in smaller growth companies that can also benefit from expert management assistance.

Native American Initiative. In order to better serve Native American communities in this millennium and to honor the Federal government’s trust responsibility to tribes, the President’s budget includes an increase of $1.2 billion over FY2000 – the largest increase ever – for a total of $9.4 billion for key new and existing programs assisting Native Americans and Indian reservations. Some of the highlights include:

Creation of the Delta Regional Authority. In the Mississippi Delta, poverty remains at 175 percent of the national average. The President’s budget proposes $153 million for the creation of a new Delta Regional Authority, modeled after the successful Appalachian Regional Commission, to bring the resources of a Federal-State partnership to the fight for economic growth in the region. This partnership will help bring the infrastructure and job training needed to make the Nation’s prosperity a reality in the Delta.

Closing the Digital Divide. Access to computers and the Internet and the ability to effectively use this technology are becoming increasingly important for full participation in America’s economic, political and social life. Unfortunately, unequal access to technology and high-tech skills by income, educational level, race, and geography could deepen the divisions that exist within American society. The President’s budget proposes a comprehensive package to help bridge the Digital Divide and to help create more digital opportunity for all Americans. These initiatives include $2 billion in tax incentives to encourage private sector activities such as computer donations, and $380 million in new and expanded initiatives to serve as a catalyst for public-private partnerships designed to increase access, training and applications for low-income families.

Expanding Housing Vouchers and Opportunities for Hard Pressed Working Families. The President’s budget will include $690 million for 120,000 new housing vouchers to subsidize the rents of low-income families. These housing vouchers subsidize the rents of low-income Americans, enabling them to move closer to job opportunities many of which are being created far from where these families live. Of the 120,000 new housing vouchers, 32,000 will be targeted to families moving from welfare to work, 18,000 to homeless individuals and families, and 10,000 to low-income families moving to new housing constructed through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), with the remaining 60,000 vouchers allocated to local areas to help address the large unmet need for affordable housing. These new vouchers build on the 110,000 new housing vouchers secured through the President’s leadership over the past two years. In addition, the President’s budget proposes to increase the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit volume cap from $1.25 per capita to $1.75 per capita and to index the cap to inflation after 2001,which will provide additional incentives to build and make an additional 180,000 units of affordable housing available to working families over the next five years.

Supporting Community Empowerment Fund (CEF). The CEF/EDI, funded at $100 million in FY2001, working in tandem with the Section 108 loan guarantee program, funded at $30 million in FY2001, will work with a new pilot program beginning in 2000 to create loan pools to improve the securitization of Section 108 loans.

AmeriCorps and Encouraging Community Service. Since the start of his Administration, the President has encouraged and facilitated community service. Over 150,000 young people have participated in AmeriCorps – they have helped to immunize more than a million people; taught, tutored or mentored 4.4 million children; helped build some 11,000 homes; and truly sparked a new spirit of public engagement across the land. The President’s budget includes over $850 million for the Corporation for National Service. This increase of nearly $120 million keeps AmeriCorps on track for the President’s goal of 100,000 members each year bY2004. The budget will also include a new "AmeriCorps Reserves" program, modeled after the military reserves, and designed to engage former Corps members in times of need. The budget also includes $15.5 million in new initiatives that reward innovations in youth service, as well as additional resources to encourage service by senior citizens, and to engage students in service through a new "Community Coaches" program.

Encouraging Philanthropy. The budget includes a comprehensive package of new tax proposals to encourage philanthropy. The budget proposes allowing non-itemizers to take a tax deduction for charitable giving. New rules will make it easier for charitable foundations to make gifts in times of need. In addition, the budget proposes making it easier for individuals to donate appreciated assets like securities and real property. These proposals would cost $14 billion over 10 years.

Strengthening Non-profits’ Role in Community Development. Already many faith-based and community-based organizations partner with government to help our nation’s families, but the President and Vice President believe we should do more, and their budget proposes to increase the involvement of religiously affiliated and community-based organizations in after-school, housing, community development, criminal justice, welfare reform, teen pregnancy prevention, and juvenile justice programs, consistent with the constitutional line between church and state.

Helping More Long-term Recipients Move from Welfare to Work. Because of the President’s leadership, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act contained $3 billion for Welfare-to-Work grants to help long-term welfare recipients and certain non-custodial parents go to work and support their children. To fully implement these important efforts, the President’s budget allows grantees an additional two years to spend these existing funds.

Helping Low-Income Working Families Get to Work. Transportation to work is a barrier for many low-income families. Some families need a car to get to work, but owning a car can often be the one item that makes a household ineligible for food stamps. The President’s budget will make it easier for working families to own a reliable vehicle and receive food stamps by allowing states to conform their food stamp vehicle policy with a more generous TANF vehicle policy. The Administration will also propose to allow low-income working families to use IDAs to save for a car that will allow them to get or keep a job. In addition, the Administration supports expanding public transit as a reliable form of transportation. The budget proposes to double Access to Jobs transportation funding to $150 million to expand grants to communities to develop innovative public transportation solutions that help more low-income workers and welfare recipients get to work.

Homeless Initiative. Homeless persons do not participate fully in important health and other programs for which they are eligible. The President’s budget proposes legislation for a new $10 million initiative that would improve homeless individuals’ access to mainstream programs that will help them move toward self-sufficiency. Demonstration grants would be awarded to several states to improve access to and provide coordination among mainstream programs such as Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Food Stamps, the Workforce Investment Act, and the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Block Grants. The budget also proposes $1.2 billion for homeless assistance programs at HUD, including $105 million for 18,000 homeless vouchers.

 

FROM DIGITAL DIVIDE TO DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY

 

Access to computers and the Internet and the ability to use this technology effectively are becoming increasingly important for full participation in America’s economic, social and political life. Unfortunately, there is strong evidence of a "digital divide" – unequal access to technology by income, education level, race, and geography. In 1998, those with a college degree were more than eight times more likely to have a computer at home and nearly sixteen times as likely to have home Internet access as those with an elementary school education. This growing divide also cleaves our community along income, ethnic, and geographic lines, with affluent, white, and urban/suburban households enjoying better computer and Internet access than their African-American, Hispanic, less affluent and more rural counterparts.

Private sector competition and rapid technological progress are powerful forces to bridge the digital divide and make Information Age tools available for more and more Americans. By working with the private sector and community-based organizations, the Administration can accelerate the trend toward expanded access. But we also need to give people skills to use technology and to promote content and applications of technology that will help empower under-served communities. Building on their past successes in bridging the digital divide, President Clinton and Vice President Gore propose the following initiative to help accomplish these goals:

Tax incentives to encourage private sector involvement. The budget proposes $2 billion over 10 years in tax incentives to encourage private sector donation of computers, sponsorship of community technology centers, and technology training for workers, including:

Teacher training. The budget proposes $150 million to help train new teachers entering the workforce to use technology effectively in the classroom. Under the leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, the United States has made enormous progress in connecting schools to the Internet and increasing the number of modern computers in the classroom. However, access to computers and the Internet will not help students achieve high academic standards unless teachers are as comfortable with a computer as they are with a chalkboard. President Clinton’s budget calls for $150 million in Department of Education grants – double last year’s investment of $75 million – to achieve this goal.

Community Technology Centers. The President proposes $100 million to create up to 1,000 Community Technology Centers in low-income urban and rural communities. The President’s budget more than triples the Department of Education’s support for Community Technology Centers – from $32.5 million in FY2000 to $100 million in FY2001. This initiative, championed by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, was initially funded at $10 million in FY 1999. It aims to help close the "digital divide" by providing computers and Information Age tools to children and adults who can not afford them at home.

Public/private partnerships. The President’s budget includes a new $50 million Department of Commerce pilot program to expand access to computers and the Internet for low-income families and to give these families the skills they need to use these new Information Age tools effectively. This new program will provide competitive grants to public-private partnerships at the local level.

Innovative applications of technology. President Clinton’s budget will increase the investment in the Department of Commerce’s highly-successful Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) to $45 million – triple the current level of $15 million. Applications might include public health information systems that raise childhood immunization rates in inner cities, tele-mentoring for at-risk youth, and electronic networks that strengthen local communities by fostering communication and collaboration.

High-speed networks in underserved communities. High-speed Internet access is becoming as important to the economic vitality of a community as roads and bridges are today. The President proposes a new $25 million program at the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture to accelerate, through grants and loan guarantees, private sector deployment of broadband networks in under-served urban and rural communities.

Native Americans and information technology. The President proposes $10 million to prepare Native Americans for careers in information technology and other technical fields. The National Science Foundation will support efforts by tribal colleges to increase the number of Native Americans who are prepared to pursue careers in information technology and other technical fields.

 

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

President Clinton and Vice President Gore include a nearly $3 billion increase in the "Twenty-First Century Research Fund" in their FY2001 budget, including a $1 billion increase in biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health and double the largest dollar increase for the National Science Foundation in its 50 year history. These investments will ensure that science and technology will continue to fuel economic growth and allow Americans to lead longer, healthier lives. These investments also will enable America to continue to lead in the 21st century by increasing support in all scientific and engineering disciplines, including biomedical research, nanotechnology, information technology, clean energy, and university-based research. Specifically, this infusion of funds will enable researchers to tackle important scientific and technological challenges.

The Benefits of Technology for America. Technology has helped fuel American prosperity, improved the lives of American families, and enabled us to learn more about the world around us.

The President’s FY2001 Proposals for Research and Development. In his FY2001 budget the President is proposing a wide range of initiatives and funding increases for vital investments in research and development:

 

SAFE COMMUNITIES

 

America has the lowest crime rate in a generation. The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget proposes a series of measures to continue to make progress toward the goal of making America the safest large country in the world.

21st Century Policing Initiative. The President’s COPS program has funded 100,000 more community police for our streets. The 21st Century Policing Initiative builds on that success by:

Stopping Crime by Stopping Drugs. Offenders under the influence of drugs or in the pursuit of money to feed a drug habit commit many crimes. To break the vicious cycle of drugs and crime, the President’s budget provides more funding to help states to implement tough, rigorous systems of drug testing, punishment, and treatment of offenders under criminal justice supervision. The President’s $215 million initiative would double current funding for this initiative to move more offenders off of drugs and away from crime. Studies show that offenders who complete drug-treatment are 70 percent less likely to commit crime. The initiative will also fund innovative drug courts and intensive drug treatment for state prisoners with the most serious drug problems.

Safe Schools. While overall school and youth crime continues to decline, recent incidents of tragic violence in our nation’s schools reminds us that we can do more. The budget reaffirms the President’s commitment to school safety by calling for a significant expansion of his Safe Schools/Health Students Initiative. The President’s initiative, first launched at the White House Conference on School Safety in 1998, helps communities to develop and implement community-wide responses to school and youth violence. The program joins principals, parents, police and others in the community in comprehensive strategies to address youth violence in and out of school. The budget provides a $100 million increase for this initiative, investing a total of nearly $250 million in this signature program.

Supervising Released Offenders: Project Reentry. The need for greater supervision of the 500,000 inmates who will leave prison this year and reenter local communities is significant: two-thirds of all prisoners are re-arrested for new offenses within three years of release. The President’s budget contains $60 million for community supervision initiative to create "reentry partnerships" and "reentry courts" to address community safety concerns, lower recidivism rates, and promote responsible fatherhood among offenders returning to communities. The initiative is complemented by $75 million in Responsible Reintegration for Young Offenders grants from the Department of Labor as well as $10 million in SAMHSA targeted capacity expansion grants for substance abuse and mental health services at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. In 1994, the President signed into law the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA I), an historic piece of Federal legislation that contains a broad array of ground-breaking laws to combat the epidemic of violence against women. The Clinton Administration has awarded over $1.3 billion in VAWA grants since 1994. The President called on Congress to reauthorize this historic piece of legislation this year, as part of his Crime bill, in order to ensure that these programs and prevention strategies continue in this millennium. The President’s budget also includes $516 million in order to combat domestic violence – $296 million for the Department of Justice and $220 million for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Improving Law Enforcement in Indian Country. The budget proposes $439 million, an increase of $103 million over FY2000, for the Departments of Justice and Interior for the third year of the President’s Indian Country Law Enforcement Initiative. The initiative will improve public safety for the over 1.4 million residents on the approximately 56 million acres of Indian lands. This funding will increase the number of law enforcement officers on Indian lands, provide more equipment, expand detention facilities, enhance juvenile crime prevention, and improve the effectiveness of tribal courts. Although violent crime has been declining nationally for several years, it has been on the rise in Indian country. According to the Department of Justice, American Indians are the victims of violent crimes at more than twice the rate of all U.S. residents. Recognizing this, the President made a major commitment to improve law enforcement in Indian country.

Fighting Gun Crime with the Largest National Gun Enforcement Initiative in History. The President’s strategy of combating gun violence has helped lead to a 35 percent decline in gun crime. Building on that success, the President’s budget includes $280 million for the largest national gun enforcement initiative in history. The initiative specifically includes:

Funding Innovative Smart Gun Technology. The accidental gun death rate for children under 15 in the U.S. is nine times higher than in 25 other industrialized nations combined. To help prevent accidental gun death and injuries of children who obtain access to guns, gun theft, and other unauthorized uses, the President’s budget provides $10 million to fund the expansion, testing and replication of "smart" gun technologies. These state-of-the-art gun safety precautions can limit a gun’s use to its adult owner or other authorized users.

Strengthening Brady Background Checks. The President’s budget provides $70 million to double funding to improve state criminal history records and improve the speed and accuracy of Brady background checks. In addition, $5 million will fund a National Instant Notification (NIN) system to help police apprehend criminals attempting to illegally purchase firearms.

Keeping Used Police Guns Out of the Hands of Criminals. To end the resale of used police guns and seized firearms on civilian markets where criminals may gain access to them, the budget provides $10 million for one-time grants to help law enforcement meet budgetary constraints on the condition that they agree to halt the practice of resales.

 

UNITED STATES LEADERSHIP IN THE WORLD

 

At the start of a new century, the United States is faced with new opportunities and new challenges as a global leader and the world’s strongest force for peace and prosperity. American leadership has been instrumental in seizing new opportunities for peace, including reversing ethnic cleansing and restoring stability to the Balkans; ending bloodshed in Northern Ireland; brokering peace in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors; restoring democracy in East Timor; supporting Russia’s transformation to democracy and free markets; and integrating China into the international community. U.S. leadership has also been decisive in meeting new challenges and combating new threats such as weapons proliferation, terrorism, and drug-trafficking. The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget seeks to build upon past success to advance America’s leadership position in the world, funding a number of new initiatives designed seize the new opportunities and face the new challenges the 21st century presents.

Promoting Peace and Democracy Abroad.

Meeting Threats.

Expanding Trade.

Reaching Out to the Developing World.

Anti-Sweatshop Initiative. President Clinton’s FY2001 budget includes a $5 million grant program at the State Department that will fund innovative programs to eliminate unhealthy and abusive labor conditions in sweatshops around the world, particularly in foreign factories that produce consumer goods for the American market.

 

AMERICA’S ARMED FORCES

President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to maintaining a strong and capable military that protects our freedoms and fortifies our global leadership role in the 21st century. To achieve this, President Clinton last year initiated a long-term, sustained increase in defense spending by providing additional resources of $112 billion over six years to protect our high level of military readiness and procure modern and effective weapons systems. This year’s budget continues this increase in defense spending, providing discretionary funding of $292.2 billion in 2001. This represents an increase in $11.3 billion over the proposed 2000 level and $4.8 billion over the 2001 level assumed in the 2000 budget.

Enhancing Military Readiness. The current high level of readiness is the Administration’s top defense priority. Increased funding will enable the Services to support unit operations and joint exercises, meet their required training standards, maintain their equipment in top condition, recruit and retain quality personnel, and procure sufficient spare parts and other equipment. The Department of Defense (DoD) continues to monitor its current and future readiness through the Senior Readiness Review process, which ensure that DoD leadership remains well informed about force preparedness issues.

Modernizing Weapons Systems. The United States military must maintain its status as the best equipped in the world. Weapons systems modernization, both in the form of upgrades to existing systems and in the form of research, development and procurement of new systems, continues to be a high Administration priority. The budget achieves that goal by providing $60.3 billion for the procurement program, which is $6.1 billion more than the 2000 level.

Developing Missile Defenses. The Administration intends to determine this year whether to deploy a limited National Missile Defense (NMD) against ballistic missile threats to the United States from rogue nations. At the same time, the President seeks funding for theater missile defense to defend our forces in the field.

RESTORING FAIRNESS FOR LEGAL IMMIGRANTS

 

Upon signing the 1996 welfare reform law, the President made a commitment to reversing unnecessary cuts in benefits to legal immigrants that had nothing to do with the law’s goal of moving people from welfare to work. In 1997, the President fought for and ultimately was successful in ensuring that the Balanced Budget Act protects the most vulnerable. In 1998, the President continued his proposals to reverse unfair cuts in benefits to legal immigrants. The Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget continues to fight for restoring important disability, health, and nutrition benefits to additional categories of legal immigrants, at a cost of $2.5 billion over five years.

 

TOBACCO POLICY

 

The Clinton-Gore Administration’s budget will include important new steps to reduce youth smoking and hold the tobacco industry accountable. Every year, more than 400,000 Americans die from tobacco-related diseases; nearly 90 percent of them started smoking as children. To address this, one of the nation’s most serious public health challenges, the Administration proposes to:

Cut Youth Smoking in Half by Holding the Tobacco Industry Accountable. The Administration’s budget will cut youth smoking in half by charging the tobacco industry an assessment for every underage smoker. These youth smoking assessments will provide a strong incentive for tobacco companies to reduce sales to minors and eliminate advertising encouraging children to smoke. The $3,000 assessment for every smoker under age 18 will be put in place starting in 2004 only if youth smoking has not been cut in half and would remain in effect until the youth smoking reduction goal has been met. This $3,000 annual assessment represents twice the lifetime profits the industry is expected to make from hooking a teen on cigarettes. This policy will significantly reduce youth smoking when combined with the price increases and public health initiatives underway as a result of the 1998 state tobacco settlement and other Federal, state, and local efforts.

In addition to the youth smoking assessments, the Administration’s budget includes a 25 cents per pack excise beginning in FY2001, to raise further the price of tobacco products from the 45 cent increase agreed to by the states and the industry in 1998. This increase will help reduce youth smoking and help achieve the Administration’s goal of cutting youth smoking in half. Public health experts agree that raising the price of cigarettes cuts youth smoking and recent surveys of youth smoking released by independent experts indicate youth smoking rates have started to decline since recent price increases were put in place. In addition to raising the price of cigarettes by 25 cents a pack, the Administration’s budget will include comparable increases in the price of other tobacco products such as smokeless tobacco and cigars, and will move an already legislated 5 cents per pack cigarette increase from January 1, 2002 to October 1, 2000.

These proposals will reduce youth smoking, and complement the progress being made as a result of the 1998 settlement between the states and the industry. These policies would not affect the $246 billion agreement made between the states and the tobacco industry.

Help Current Smokers Quit. The Administration’s budget will take an important step to improve the health of low-income Americans by ensuring they have access to drugs to help them quit smoking. The Administration’s budget will ensure every state Medicaid program covers both prescription and non-prescription smoking cessation drugs, removing a special exclusion now in law and requiring states to cover these drugs as they cover all other Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs. The Federal government would provide the usual Federal match for these costs, as it does for other Medicaid expenses, and states could use proceeds from the 1998 tobacco settlement or other funds to pay their share. Medical research shows that smoking cessation products greatly increase success rates for those trying to quit smoking, and that quitting has major and immediate health benefits for smokers of all ages. Through this proposal, the Administration will ensure millions of low-income Americans have access to medical treatments that will help them break their addiction to tobacco, at a Federal cost of $66 million over the next five years.

Support State and Community Efforts to Prevent Youth Smoking. The Administration’s budget will help support tobacco prevention programs in states and local communities through a $106 million in resources for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This funding, a ten-fold increase over 1993 levels, will enable the CDC to work with states and communities to help them put in place effective programs to prevent tobacco use, particularly among children. This effort is critically important as states begin to decide how to spend the $246 billion they will receive over the next 25 years from the 1998 settlement with the tobacco industry.

Help Enforce Laws Preventing Minors from Purchasing Tobacco Products. The Administration’s budget will include $39 million for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help enforce the laws preventing youth under age 18 from purchasing tobacco products. Currently Federal law requires every state to prohibit minors from purchasing tobacco products, and Federal regulations ensure retailers check photo IDs of young people who try to purchase them. These funds will help the FDA work with the states and with retailers to enforce these laws, by providing retailers with informational materials to help them explain the rules to customers and by conducting random checks of retailer compliance.

Support the FDA’s Full Authority to Keep Cigarettes Out of the Hands of Children. The Administration supports full FDA authority to regulate tobacco products in order to halt advertising targeted to children and to curb minors’ access to tobacco products. In 1996 the Administration put forward a comprehensive regulation to protect children from tobacco, which the tobacco industry challenged in court. The Administration remains fully committed to the FDA rule.

Recover Tobacco-related Health Care Costs. The Administration firmly supports the Department of Justice’s litigation to recover Federal tobacco-related health costs, and the budget contains funds to pay the necessary legal costs. In addition to any remedies imposed by the court to advance public health, recoveries from the litigation will be used to assist tobacco farmers and their communities, to pay Federal tobacco related health costs, and to enhance the security of Medicare and Social Security for future generations.

Protect Farmers and Farming Communities. The Administration is committed to protecting tobacco farmers and their communities. The Administration fully supports the $5 billion settlement to compensate tobacco farmers, which was agreed to by the states and industry in 1998, as well as the $328 million included in the Agricultural Appropriations bill for FY2000, and is committed, as any Federal litigation moves to judgment or settlement, to ensure funds are set aside for the financial security of tobacco farmers and their communities.

 

 

FARM SAFETY NET

 

Because the 1996 Farm Bill fails to sufficiently support farm family incomes when crop prices fall or natural disasters strike, the Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget includes a comprehensive $11 billion package to strengthen the farm safety net through 2002 when the next farm bill will be enacted. His proposal includes counter-cyclical income assistance, crop insurance reform, a major farm conservation program initiative (much of which extends beyond 2002), and targeted assistance to certain segments of the farm and rural communities.

Income Assistance. A particular defect of the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act is that payments are not targeted to farmers in need or increased when farm income is low. The 2001 Budget’s income support initiative will help to strengthen the safety net by adding new payment programs to existing farm programs.

Conservation Initiatives in the Safety Net Proposal. Providing assistance to farmers and ranchers who practice environmentally sound land management will yield benefits to all Americans while increasing farm family income. Through these USDA programs, participants can receive cost-share assistance, technical assistance, and in many cases annual payments for high-priority conservation activities. The proposal – which increases conservation funding by nearly $1.3 billion over authorized levels in FY2001 – includes:

Crop Insurance Reform. Crop insurance represents a critical risk management tool for the nation’s farmers. In recent years, however, many producers have declined to participate in the program or signed up for only minimal coverage because of its expense and shortcomings. The President’s budget takes critical steps towards improving the crop insurance program with the following initiatives:

Other Targeted Assistance. In addition to the proposals identified above, the President is proposing several smaller, targeted programs to assist rural communities and producers.

 

BUILDING ONE AMERICA

 

To help achieve the President’s vision of One America, the Clinton-Gore Administration’s FY2001 budget provides funding for a variety of purposes including: to strengthen civil rights enforcement and programs, to better serve Native American communities, to provide English language instruction and fairness to immigrant families, to eliminate health disparities, and to promote educational opportunities and economic development in urban and rural areas.

CIVIL RIGHTS

The FY2001 budget proposes a significant increase for civil rights enforcement to help ensure equal opportunity for all Americans. The President’s budget request of $698 million for civil rights enforcement agencies represents a 13 percent increase over last year’s funding levels. Highlights of the President’s proposal include

Ensuring Equal Pay. The President’s budget includes a $27 million Equal Pay Initiative, an increase of $12 million over FY2000. The Initiative requests $10 million for the EEOC to provide training and technical assistance to about 3,000 employers on how to comply with equal pay requirements. The Initiative also dedicates $10 million for the Department of Labor (DOL) to train women in nontraditional jobs, including high-tech jobs and other skill shortage occupations. Lastly, the Initiative provides $7 million for DOL to help employers assess and improve their pay policies, support public education efforts, provide for projects in non-traditional apprenticeships, and implement industry partnerships.

Hate Crimes. The President continues to urge Congress to pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would strengthen the existing Federal hate crimes law by expanding the situations in which the Department of Justice can prosecute defendants for violent crimes based on race, color, religion, or national origin. Further, it would expand existing law to cover cases of hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender, or disability. The President’s budget includes $20 million for training for Federal, state, and local law enforcement to prevent and respond to hate crimes, and to promote police integrity.

One America Dialogues. The budget proposes $5 million for the Department of Justice to fund Citizen Academies, where citizens will acquire public safety problem-solving tools and training and engage in honest and constructive dialogues on race.

NATIVE AMERICANS

In order to better serve Native American communities in this millennium and to honor the Federal government’s trust responsibility to tribes, the President’s budget includes an increase of $1.2 billion over FY2000 – the largest increase ever – for a total of $9.4 billion for key new and existing programs assisting Native Americans and Indian reservations. Some of the highlights include:

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) School Construction and Repair. The President has proposed $300 million, more than double the FY2000 enacted level of $133 million, to replace and repair BIA-funded schools on reservations. This is the largest investment ever in a single year for BIA school construction and repair.

Increased Funding for Tribal Colleges. The budget proposes increased funding of $25 million for the Nation’s tribal colleges for a total of $77 million.

Indian Health Service. The President’s budget proposes $2.6 billion, an increase for the Indian Health Service (IHS) of $230 million or 10 percent over the FY2000 enacted level.

Improves Law Enforcement in Indian Country. The budget proposes $439 million, an increase of $103 million over FY2000, for the Departments of Justice and Interior for the third year of the President’s Indian Country Law Enforcement Initiative. The initiative will improve public safety for the over 1.4 million residents on the approximately 56 million acres of Indian lands.

Building Roads and Bridges in Indian Country. The Transportation Department (DOT) will expand its program to improve roads and bridges on Indian reservations. The President’s budget proposes to give the Indian Reservations Roads program the full authorization amount of $275 million with an additional $74 million from a highway receipts account for a total of $349 million, which is an increase of $117 million over the previous year. This will allow Tribes to address the estimated backlog of $4 billion in needs on these roads and bridges.

Tribal Infrastructure Projects. The President and the Vice President propose $49 million, an increase of $46 million over FY2000, for the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to fund infrastructure, planning, and public works projects.

Addressing the Digital Divide. To encourage Native Americans to pursue information technology and other science and technology fields, the budget provides $10 million, to be administered by the National Science Foundation, for grants to tribal colleges for networking and access; course development; student assistance; and capacity building.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Contract Support Costs. Within the overall BIA increase, the budget continues to support Tribal self-determination by proposing $134 million, a $9 million or 7 percent increase over 2000 for contract support costs. This funding provides $5 million for new and expanded contracts and $129 million for existing contracts.

Trust Services. The Administration is committed to improving trust services and management through its trust reform efforts at the Interior Department. The budget proposes $108 million, a 48 percent increase over 2000, for improved trust services in the BIA for activities such as probate, real estate appraisals, and other services.

Indian Trust Fund Balances. The Administration is committed to resolving disputed Indian trust fund account balances through informal dispute resolution and supports the unique government-to-government relationship that exists in Indian trust land management issues. After Tribal consultations, BIA submitted its "Recommendations of the Secretary of the Interior for Settlement of Disputed Tribal Accounts" to Congress in November 1997. Legislation reflecting these recommendations was proposed in 1998, but not enacted. The Department will continue efforts to resolve trust fund account balances.

Trust Land Management. As part of BIA’s commitment to resolving trust land management issues, Interior worked with Congress in 1999 to repropose legislation (S. 1586) to establish an Indian Land Consolidation program to address the ownership fractionation of Indian land. In addition to $13 million for the Indian Land Consolidation program, the budget provides $83 million for DOI’s Office of Special Trustee, including the trust management improvement project. Current activities include verifying individual Indian’s account data and converting these data to a commercial-grade accounting system.

IMMIGRANTS

English Language/Civics Instruction Initiative. Immigrant adults – and other adults who have limited-English proficiency–need access to opportunities to master English literacy in order to further their education, obtain good jobs, and become full participants in American society. To this end, President Clinton is proposing an increase for the English Language/Civics Initiative, an innovative program to help states and communities provide limited English proficient (LEP) individuals with expanded access to high-quality English-language instruction linked to civics and life skills instruction. This important initiative is a powerful tool in building a stronger American community. For FY2001, the Administration’s budget request $75 million for this initiative, a nearly $50 million increase from FY2000 enacted level to help an additional estimated 250,000 LEP individuals.

Funding and Restructuring INS to Improve Services. In a continuing effort to improve INS services, this budget provides $35 million to address backlogs in naturalization, adjustment of status, and other immigration benefit applications. It establishes a $93 million Immigration Services Capital Investment Account to fund on-going backlog reduction efforts and to cover major capital acquisitions. The President also calls on Congress to move forward with a restructuring of the INS – along the principles outlined by the Administration – to improve immigration service delivery and border enforcement.

Restoring Benefits to Legal Immigrants. The President believes that legal immigrants should have the same economic opportunity, and bear the same responsibility, as other members of society. In the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Reform Act of 1998, the President fought for and succeeded in reversing unfair cuts in benefits to legal immigrants. The FY2001 budget builds on the Administration’s progress of restoring these important benefits by providing $2.5 billion over five years to: (1) restore SSI and Medicaid to legal immigrants who entered the United States after August 22, 1996, have been here for five years, and become disabled after entry; (2) restore Food Stamp eligibility to legal immigrants who were in the country before August 22, 1996 and either subsequently reach age 65 or live in a household with Food Stamp eligible children; and (3) allow states to provide Medicaid or SCHIP to legal immigrant children and pregnant women regardless of their date of entry, and to legal immigrant parents of children who are covered by Medicaid or SCHIP in the proposed FamilyCare program.

EDUCATION

Hispanic Education Action Plan. As part of the Administration’s commitment to raising the educational outcomes of Latino youth, the President again proposes significant increases to programs within the Hispanic Education Action Plan to help Latinos excel academically, graduate from high school, go on to college, and continue on the path to life-long learning. The final budget includes increases of $823 million for programs that enhance educational opportunity for Latinos, including: a $416 million increase for Title I, to provide support supplemental education services for students who have fallen behind in school, in particular those in high poverty communities; $725 million for TRIO college preparation programs, an increase of $80 million, which help disadvantaged high school and college students prepare for, attend, and graduate from college; and $296 million, an increase of $48 million, for the Bilingual Education program to increase the quality of services offered to limited-English proficient (LEP) students and provide 8,000 bilingual and ESL teachers with the high quality in-service and pre-service training they need to teach this special population.

Dual Degree Programs for Minority-Serving Institutions. The FY2001 budget proposes a new program to increase opportunities for students at minority-serving institutions. Students would receive two degrees within five years: one from a minority-serving institution, and one from a partner institution in a field in which minorities are underrepresented. This new $40 million program will serve an estimated 3,000 students.

Title I Education for the Disadvantaged. This program provides funds to help disadvantaged children reach high academic standards. Title I will receive $9.1 billion in FY2001, an $400 million increase over last year’s level. The President’s budget also includes an increase of $134 million for the Title I Accountability Fund bringing total funding to $250 million. The Title I Accountability Fund supports immediate and significant State and local interventions in the lowest performing schools to improve school achievement and promotes public school choice.

HEALTH

Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health. In February 1998, the President committed the nation to an ambitious goal by the year 2010: eliminate disparities in six health areas where racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected, while continuing the progress we have made in improving the overall health of the American people. As a key part of this effort, the budget includes $35 million, a 17 percent increase over 2000, for demonstration projects (begun in 1999) to better address racial disparities in health.

NEW MARKETS INITIATIVE

The President’s budget provides tax credits and loans guarantee incentives to stimulate $22 billion of new private capital investments in economically distressed communities around the country and build a network of private investment institutions to funnel credit, equity and technical assistance to businesses in America’s new markets. In addition, the budget proposes a new initiative, known as First Accounts that will provide low-cost bank accounts to working families.

More Than Doubling the New Markets Tax Credit. The President proposes to more than double the New Markets tax credit to spur $15 billion in new investment in community development in economically distressed areas. An entity making new equity investments in a selected community development project would be eligible for a tax credit worth 25 percent of the cost of the investment. A variety of vehicles providing equity and credit to businesses in underserved areas would be eligible. The total cost of the tax credits amounts to about $5 billion over 10 years.

Expanded Empowerment Zones. The proposed expanded wage credits, tax incentives, and new round of urban and rural EZs will extend and improve economic growth in the 31 existing urban and rural Empowerment Zones, administered by HUD and USDA, and support the proposed third round of 10 new empowerment zones to be designated in 2001. The total cost of these proposals will be $4.4 billion over 10 years.

America’s Private Investment Companies (APICs). Modeled after the Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s (OPIC) successful investment fund program, the President’s budget proposes $37 million to allow APICs to provide guaranteed debt to private investment companies, licensed by HUD, to help leverage private equity capital and lower the cost of capital for investments in low- and moderate-income communities. For every dollar that private investors provide, the government will guarantee two dollars in debt to expand the APIC’s pool of capital available for making investments and enhance the return on those investments to the private investors. APICs will make equity investments in larger businesses that are expanding or relocating in inner cities and rural areas.

New Market Venture Capital Firms (NMVCs). The budget proposes $52 million to allow NMVC firms to match the equity of private investors with Government-guaranteed debt and technical assistance funding to cultivate the growth of smaller firms. NMVC would invest in smaller growth companies that can also benefit from expert management assistance.

Creation of First Accounts. The President’s budget proposes $30 million for the Department of Treasury to pilot strategies to help low- and moderate income Americans benefit from basic financial services. Treasury will work with financial institutions and others: (1) to encourage the creation of low-cost bank accounts (First Accounts); (2) to expand access to automatic teller machines in safe, secure, and convenient locations, including U.S. Post Offices, in low-income neighborhoods; (3) to educate low-income Americans about the benefits of having a bank account, managing household finances, and building assets. The First Accounts initiative complements Treasury’s Electronic Transfer Accounts (ETAs) – low-cost, electronic banking accounts for "unbanked" Federal benefit recipients – by reaching those not eligible to participate in the ETA program because they are not Federal benefit recipients.

Other Elements of New Markets. Other elements in the budget include: increasing the funding for SBA’s microenterprise lending program to $50 million; $15 million to fund PRIME – a program authorized last year to provide technical assistance to low-income entrepreneurs; boosting CDFI funding to $125 million; expanding support to $6.6 million for BusinessLINC to encourage large businesses to work with small businesses in new markets; and providing $5 million to establish a New Markets University Partnerships pilot project which, under the auspices of HUD, would provide Universities with funding to develop local community partnerships, assistance to intermediaries, and technical and business development assistance to new and existing firms. In addition, to better serve Native American communities, the President will provide additional funding to expand the New Markets initiative to Indian Country.




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