A VICTORY FOR STUDENTS AND HEALTH CARE:
PRESIDENT CLINTON, VICE PRESIDENT GORE, AND CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS WIN
A LANDMARK BUDGET December 15, 2000
All year, President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and congressional Democrats have fought for a fiscally responsible budget that maintains America's prosperity by paying down the debt while making key investments in education, health care, and other priorities for America. Today, President Clinton and Congress completed their work on the budget, agreeing on a budget for education, health, and labor programs and the New Markets initiative.
The bill is a landmark achievement: it provides a $6.5 billion (or 18 percent) increase for the Department of Education, the largest ever and a 76 percent increase since 1993. The Department of Health and Human Services receives a $9 billion (or 22 percent) increase. It establishes the President's school repair initiative and provides the largest increases ever for the U.S. Department of Education, after-school programs, Head Start, school accountability, Pell Grants for college students (since the program was fully implemented in 1974), and the National Institutes of Health. It expands coverage under Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program and restores reimbursements to health care providers that were disproportionately effected by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.
Investing in America's Students. The Clinton-Gore education strategy of
higher standards for students and teachers, accountability for results,
and the greater investment in our schools is working.
-- $933 Million Increase for Head Start, Doubling Resources since
1993. President Clinton won a $933 million increase for Head Start to
$6.2 billion, serving 935,000 children. This is the largest one-year
increase in Head Start ever. Since 1993, Head Start has more than
doubled from $2.8 billion to $6.2 billion.
-- $1.2 Billion for a New School Repair Initiative. President Clinton
fought for and won a new initiative to repair America's schools,
providing $1.2 billion for urgent school renovation. This initiative was
a top priority of the President's, but it wasn't in the earlier
Republican budget passed by the House of Representatives. The budget
also provides much-needed repair funds to Native American schools.
-- Staying on Track to Hire 100,000 Teachers to Reduce Class Size.
President Clinton won $1.6 billion for his class-size reduction
initiative -- a $323 million (or 25 percent) increase over last year --
to stay on track to hire 100,000 new teachers to reduce class sizes in
the early grades. The House Republican budget failed to dedicate funds
for class-size reduction.
-- Nearly Doubling After-School Learning Opportunities. The budget
includes $846 million for after-school programs, a $396 million (or 88
percent) increase over last year and $246 million above the House
Republican plan, serving 1.3 million children nationwide.
-- $567 Million to Improve Teacher Quality. The budget includes $567
million for the President's teacher quality initiatives, a 52 percent
increase. It invests in professional development, recruitment, and
retention; expands the successful Troops to Teachers program to other
mid-career professionals; and trains early childhood educators.
-- Holding Schools Accountable for Student Achievement. President
Clinton won $225 million -- a 70 percent increase since last year -- to
turn around low-performing schools, while the House Republican budget
failed to invest in this key priority.
-- Creating College Opportunities. Last January, President Clinton
announced his request for a $1 billion increase in efforts to expand
student and prepare students for college. Consistent with his plan, the
budget:
-- Provides the Largest Increase in Pell Grants Ever. The budget
increases the maximum Pell grant to $3,750, a $450 increase since last
year -- the largest one-year increase since the program was phased-in in
1974 -- and a $1,450 increase since 1993.
-- Increases Funding for GEAR UP by $95 Million to $295 Million. The
House Republican plan froze GEAR UP at $200 million. The budget will
help 1.2 million disadvantaged students prepare for college.
-- Provides the Second-Largest TRIO Increase in History. The budget
increases TRIO funding by $85 million to $730 million and incorporates
key elements of the President's College Completion Challenge Grants
proposal into TRIO.
-- Funds One Million Work-Study Jobs. It sustains the President's
commitment to give one million students the opportunity to work through
college.
Strengthening Health Care. The President's budget will strengthen the
nation's health care system by:
-- Investing in Medicare, Medicaid, and S-CHIP Beneficiaries and
Providers. The budget enacts the Medicare, Medicaid and the State
Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) Benefits Improvement and
Protection Act, which invests nearly $35 billion over five years to: (1)
improve Medicare's prevention benefits and cost-sharing, (2) provide
health care coverage to persons leaving welfare for work and enroll
eligible uninsured children in Medicaid and S-CHIP through schools and
other sites, and (3) increase reimbursement to hospitals, home health
agencies, nursing homes, managed care plans and other essential health
care providers disproportionately affected by cuts from the Balanced
Budget Act of 1997.
-- Supporting Biomedical Research. The budget invests $20.3 billion in
cutting-edge biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, a
14 percent increase since last year and nearly double the $10.3 billion
spent in 1993.
-- Creating the Family Caregivers Program. The budget provides $125
million for states to provide respite and other support services to
families who care for elderly relatives with long-term care needs.
-- Expanding AIDS Care, Prevention, and Research. The budget includes
a $164 million increase in funding for domestic and international HIV
prevention activities; an increase of $213 million in the Ryan White
CARE Act, which helps provide primary care and support for those living
with HIV/AIDS; and an estimated $2.2 billion in additional funds for
AIDS-related research at the NIH.
-- Funding the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act. The budget
provides $580 million for a total of $655 million for one-time payments
of $100,000 to people with hemophilia who were infected with HIV by
blood solids during the 1980s.
-- Improving Mental Health and Substance Abuse Activities. The budget
increases resources for the prevention and treatment of mental health
and substance abuse by 12 percent, providing nearly $3 billion.
-- Promoting Community-Based Care for Americans with Disabilities.
The budget invests $50 million to help states develop comprehensive
plans to care for people with disabilities in the most appropriate
setting.
-- Improving Nursing Home Quality. The budget includes a $32 million
(68 percent) increase for the Nursing Home Initiative, which ensures
more rigorous inspections of nursing facilities and improves federal
oversight of nursing home quality.
Preparing America's Workers for the 21st Century. The budget invests in
worker training to raise productivity and help Americans compete in the
global economy.
-- Creating Opportunities for Youth. The final budget provides a $102
million increase (to $1.1 billion) to provide job training and summer
job opportunities to roughly 660,000 disadvantaged young people. It also
increases Youth Opportunity Grants to $275 million to provide
comprehensive employment and training assistance to 63,000 out-of-school
young people in high poverty areas.
-- Continuing the Universal Reemployment Initiative. The budget
creates $35 million Reemployment initiative to help 156,000 Unemployment
Insurance claimants get jobs faster. It also provides $1.6 billion for
Dislocated Workers, nearly tripled from $597 million in 1993.
-- Protecting Workers. The final budget includes $1.2 billion to
enforce federal safety, health, pensions, wages, and nondiscrimination
practices. This $102 million increase will support 1,500 inspections to
ensure safe and healthy workplaces.
IN ADDITION TO THE PRESIDENT'S PROGRESS ON EDUCATION AND HEALTH, THIS YEAR'S BUDGET INCLUDES HIS OTHER VITAL PRIORITIES FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:
Protecting Fiscal Discipline and Paying Down the Debt. The budget is a
victory for President Clinton's stand for fiscal discipline. Between
1981 and 1992, the debt quadrupled. When President Clinton and Vice
President Gore took office, the budget deficit was $290 billion and it
was projected to be $455 billion by 2000. As a result of the tough and
sometimes unpopular choices made by President Clinton, we have seen
eight consecutive years of fiscal improvement for the first time in
America's history, bringing last year's budget to a unified surplus of
$237 billion, the largest ever. With this surplus, we have been able to
reverse this trend of exploding debt by paying down the debt for three
years in a row.
-- Protecting Fiscal Discipline. The Republicans proposed fiscally
irresponsible tax cuts that would have jeopardized this record of fiscal
discipline. In August, President Clinton vetoed Republican tax cuts
that were part of their 10-year tax plan that would drain nearly $2
trillion from the surplus, drive us back into deficits, and make it
impossible to eliminate our debt by 2012.
-- Paying Down the Debt. Because record deficits have become record
surpluses, we were able to cut our debt by $223 billion last year, the
largest one-year debt reduction in U.S. history. The debt at the end of
FY 2000 was $2.4 trillion lower than it was projected to be in the last
forecast before the President's program was put in place. We can pay off
our debt by 2012, making America debt-free for the first time since
Andrew Jackson was President in 1835.
-- Benefiting from Debt Reduction. Already, debt reduction has meant
about $2,000 a year in lower interest payments for home mortgages, about
$200 a year in lower car payments, and about $200 a year for lower
student loan payments. Continuing to pay down the debt will keep
interest rates about a point lower over the next decade, saving American
families over $300 billion in home mortgages alone.
Protecting the Environment. President Clinton and Vice President Gore
won significant gains for the environment in the fiscal year 2001
budget, including new resources to combat water pollution, protect
wildlife, address global warming, and preserve precious lands across the
country. At the same time, the President and Vice President fought back
numerous, anti-environmental riders that would have traded hard-won
environmental safeguards for short-term special interest gains.
-- Preserving Our Lands Legacy. The budge provides $12 billion over
six years in unprecedented, dedicated funding for the conservation of
America's land and coastal resources.
-- Promoting Clean Water and Restoring the Florida Everglades. The
budget includes a $164 million increase for the President's Clean Water
Action Plan and $118 million to begin restoring the Florida Everglades.
-- Fighting Global Warming. The budget includes $1.2 billion, a 13
percent increase, for President Clinton's Climate Change Technology
Initiative, the backbone of the nation's effort to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. The initiative supports research, development, and
deployment of solar and renewable energy technology and energy efficient
products.
Helping Working Families. The final budget helps all Americans
participate in our economic prosperity.
-- Helping Hard-Pressed Working Families Meet Their Nutritional Needs.
Congress approved the Administration's proposed reforms to allow 245,000
people to own a reliable car and still receive Food Stamps and to help
over 1.5 million low-income people with high housing costs put food on
the table.
-- Funding 79,000 New Housing Vouchers. This $453 million increase --
the largest in more than 15 years -- will enable more families to rent
or own affordable housing. These vouchers build on the 110,000 new
vouchers secured though the President's leadership in the past two
years.
-- Helping More Low-Income Families Afford Child Care. The $817
million increase (to $2 billion) for the Child Care and Development
Block Grant will provide child care subsidies for nearly 150,000 more
children, helping more working families balance their responsibilities
at work and home.
Empowering Communities. In addition to the progress made in today's New
Markets agreement, this budget moves forward on the President's vision
to help revitalize America's communities.
-- Expanding Community Development Financial Institutions. The
President won $118 million for the Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund to support loans and equity investments in
under-served communities.
-- Promoting Community Service. President Clinton won $767 million
for national and community service, a $36 million increase. This year,
AmeriCorps will enroll its 250,000th member.
-- Developing the Mississippi Delta Region. The budget funds a new
federal-state partnership to fight for economic growth in the
Mississippi Delta region, a seven-State area which includes some of the
most distressed communities in the nation. It includes resources for
the Delta Regional authority, to improve rural economic activity, and
improve the Delta's transportation infrastructure.
Closing the Digital Divide and Investing in Research and Development.
In recognition of the centrality of knowledge and new technologies to
our prosperity and quality of life, the budget includes an unprecedented
commitment to creating digital opportunities and investing in research
and development.
-- Closing the Digital Divide. The budget includes a $32 million
increase for Community Technology Centers, a $50 million increase for
Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology, and a $30 million
increase for the Technology Opportunities Program.
-- National Science Foundation. The budget provides the largest
one-year increase for the NSF ever, $526 million, to pursue scientific
breakthroughs in core scientific areas as well as new ones like
nanotechnology.
-- National Institutes of Health. The budget provides a $2.5 billion
increase to NIH for research into diabetes, cancer, and brain disorders,
and disease prevention strategies and vaccines.
Fighting Crime, Drugs, and Gun Violence. To keep crime coming down
across the country, President Clinton fought for important investments
in the budget to build on the Administration's successful community
policing initiative, including funds to put more police on the street
and critical resources to strengthen law enforcement efforts to keep
communities safe and combat gun-related crime and violence.
-- Putting More Police on Our Streets. Last year, President Clinton
and Vice President Gore met their commitment to help communities hire
100,000 new police officers. This year, they won over $1 billion to
take the next step and help communities hire up to 50,000 more officers
over the next five years.
-- Enforcing Gun Laws. President Clinton won nearly $200 million for
his Gun Enforcement Initiative, the largest in history, to hire 500 ATF
firearms agents and inspectors, fund over 600 federal state and local
gun prosecutors and expand crime gun tracing and ballistics testing.
-- Keeping Children Safe from Guns. The Administration won $8 million
to expand the development of "smart gun" technologies that help prevent
accidental gun deaths and injuries of children by limiting the use of a
firearm to the adult who owns it or another authorized user.
Maintaining America's Global Leadership. The President fought for and
secured victories to strengthen America's leading role in the world by
investing in a strong military and providing debt relief to heavily
indebted poor countries.
-- Providing Debt Relief. The final budget provides $435 million for
debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries that commit to reform.
Savings from debt relief would be directed to education, health care,
AIDS prevention, and other critical needs. Unsustainable debt keeps many
countries in poverty; over a billion people survive on less than $1 a
day.
-- Fighting AIDS. President Clinton won $466 million to combat
HIV/AIDS and $125 million for other infectious diseases that plague the
developing world. The budget also funds the President's Millennium
Vaccine Initiative.
-- Maintaining a Strong Military. Consistent with the Clinton-Gore
plan for a long-term, sustained increase in defense spending, this
year's budget for the Department of Defense provides $296.4 billion, a
$15.8 billion increase (excluding emergency spending for FY 2000).
-- Keeping the Peace. The budget includes the President's full request
of $835 million for contributions for international peacekeeping
activities. Our ability to pay our share of international peacekeeping
missions is a crucial part of fulfilling our international security
responsibilities and ensuring that other nations share the burden with
us.
THE 2001 BUDGET: A VICTORY FOR AMERICA'S STUDENTS
INCREASE HOUSE OVER REPUBLICAN FINAL HOUSE BUDGET(1) BUDGET BUDGET Urgent School Renovation $0 $1.2 billion+ $1.2 billion Class-Size Reduction $0 $1.6 billion+ $1.6 billion After School $600 million $846 million+ $246 million Teaching to High Standards $0 $567 million+ $567 million Accountability Fund $0 $225 million+ $225 million
Title I Grants to School
Districts for Disadvantaged
Children(2) $7.9 billion $8.4 billion+ $436 million
Maximum Pell Grant College
Scholarship $3,500 $3,750+ $250
GEAR UP $200 million $295 million+ $95 million
(1) Based on the budget passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 14, 2000. That bill would have provided $37.1 billion for education programs, $5 billion less than the final budget. (2) Does not include the Accountability Fund.
EIGHT YEARS OF PROGRESS ON EDUCATION
1993 FUNDING 2001 FUNDING CHANGE
Key Department of Education Initiatives
Total Funding, U.S. Department
of Education $23.9 billion $42.1 billion +$18.2 billion
Department of Health and Human Services
Education Tax Cuts
Total Increase,
Key Education Initiatives
(Total for U.S. Department
of Education plus Head Start
plus Education Tax Cuts) $26.7 billion $56.5 billion +$29.8 billion
(+ 112%)
(1) Does not include the Accountability Fund
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