This Statement of Administration Policy provides the
Administration's views on the Labor, Health and Human Services,
Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, FY 2001, as
reported by the House Appropriations Committee. Your consideration of
the Administration's views would be appreciated.
The President's FY 2001 Budget is based on a balanced approach that
maintains fiscal discipline, eliminates the national debt, extends the
solvency of Social Security and Medicare, provides for an appropriately
sized tax cut, establishes a new voluntary Medicare prescription drug
benefit in the context of broader reforms, expands health care coverage
to more families, and funds critical investments for our future. An
essential element of this approach is ensuring adequate funding for
discretionary programs. To this end, the President has proposed
discretionary spending limits at levels that we believe are necessary to
serve the American people.
Unfortunately, the FY 2001 congressional budget resolution provides
inadequate resources for discretionary investments. We need realistic
levels of funding for critical government functions that the American
people expect their government to perform well, including education,
national security, law enforcement, environmental protection,
preservation of our global leadership, air safety, food safety, economic
assistance for the less fortunate, research and technology, and the
administration of Social Security and Medicare. Based on the inadequate
budget resolution, the Committee bill fails to address critical needs of
the American people. In addition, the Committee bill includes an
unacceptable language rider that would prohibit the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration from finalizing its standard to protect the
Nation's workers from ergonomic injuries. For the reasons discussed
below, if the bill were presented to the President in its current form,
the President would veto the bill.
The Administration strongly opposes the provision in the bill that
would prohibit the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from
finalizing its standard to protect the Nation's workers from ergonomic
injuries. Each year approximately 1.8 million American workers suffer
musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), approximately one-third of which are
serious enough to require time away from work. OSHA estimates that by
the tenth year after the rule is in effect, it will have reduced general
industry MSD's by 450,000. After more than 10 years of experience with
ergonomic guidelines, exhaustive scientific study, five months of public
comment and public hearings on the proposed regulations, and millions of
unnecessary injuries, the Administration believes that it is time to
move forward to finalize this regulation.
Department of Education
The House Committee bill would undermine our Nation's commitment to
improving our schools by cutting $2.9 billion from the President's
overall FY 2001 request for the Department of Education. The bill fails
to fund key education priorities including funding to help strengthen
accountability and turn around failing schools, reduce class size,
improve after-school and summer-school opportunities, increase school
safety, renovate aging and neglected schools, improve teacher quality,
and prepare students for college. The most significant problems with the
bill include the following:
- Class Size. The House Committee bill does not guarantee
funding for the President's initiative to hire 100,000 new teachers by
FY 2005 to reduce class sizes to a nationwide average of 18 in the
primary grades. The House bill would effectively repeal the bipartisan
agreement on class size reduction, jeopardizing the Federal commitment
to hire as many as 20,000 new teachers next year and to continue
support for the 29,000 teachers already hired. As many as 2.9 million
children could be denied the benefits of smaller classes.
- Urgent School Renovation. The House Committee bill provides
no funding for the President's initiative to provide $1.3 billion in
loan subsidies and grants to repair 5,000 aging and neglected public
school buildings, including $50 million for public schools with high
concentrations of Native American students.
- Accountability and Title I, Education for the
Disadvantaged. The House Committee bill provides no funding for
the Title I Accountability Fund that helps States and districts turn
around low-performing schools and ensure that no student is trapped in
a failing school. As a result, nearly 6,000 low-performing schools
would not receive extra assistance to improve student achievement. In
addition, the bill would reduce or eliminate services to more than
260,000 disadvantaged students aimed at helping them reach challenging
academic standards. The bill also does not provide funds for the
proposed Reward and Recognition program that supports rewards to
States that show significant gains in student achievement and narrow
the achievement gap between high- and low- performing students.
- 21st Century Community Learning Centers. The House
Committee bill cuts the President's $1 billion request for 21st
Century Community Learning Centers by $400 million, denying funding
for over 3,000 centers, which would provide after- and summer-school
programs to over one million children. Extended learning time is an
essential strategy to help all students master challenging academic
material and reach high standards. The President's request would
support 10,000 after- school and summer-school centers serving 2.5
million children.
- Teacher Quality. The House bill fails to provide funding
for the proposed $1 billion Teaching to High Standards teacher quality
programs. The President's request includes $690 million for States and
school districts to provide high quality professional development to
teachers. The House bill does not guarantee funding for professional
development. Also included in the Teaching to High Standards programs
is $310 million for teacher quality and recruitment initiatives of
national significance such as Hometown Teachers and Transition to
Teaching to help recruit teachers to high-need communities, Early
Childhood Educator Professional Development, the School Leadership
Initiative, and other teacher quality incentive programs. The House
bill does not provide any funding for these programs.
- Helping Schools Create Smaller and Safer Learning
Environments. The House Committee bill provides inadequate funding
for programs that create better and safer school learning
environments. For Safe and Drug-Free Schools, the House bill freezes
spending at the FY 2000 level, $50 million below the request, and
provides no funding for Project SERV, which would provide emergency
assistance to schools affected by serious violence and other crises.
For Small, Safe, and Successful High Schools, the bill provides $45
million, the same as the FY 2000 level. Although we appreciate the
Committee's continued support for this program, the bill's failure to
provide the $75 million requested increase would deny as many as 400
high schools support to establish or expand smaller learning
communities of no more than 600 students. Research shows that when
students are a part of a small and more intimate learning community,
they are more successful both academically and socially.
- Technology and the Digital Divide. The House Committee bill
would hamper efforts to bridge the digital divide by providing
technology training to teachers and increasing access of information
and assistive technology to individuals with disabilities. The House
bill would eliminate training for over 100,000 teachers through
Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology and would not fund 700
of the proposed 1,000 community technology centers, denying access to
computers and technology -- particularly educational technology -- for
thousands of adults and children residing in economically distressed,
high-poverty areas. Finally, the House bill would not support either
the $14 million requested increase for the National Institute on
Disability and Rehabilitation Research, for a variety of technology
initiatives, or the $7 million requested increase for Assistive
Technology to expand alternative loan financing programs that help
individuals with disabilities purchase assistive technology.
- Reading Excellence. The House Committee bill cuts the
President's $286 million request for Reading Excellence by $26
million, denying 100,000 students the help they need to become
successful readers, the cornerstone of all learning.
- Opportunities to Improve our Nation's Schools (OPTIONS).
The House Committee bill provides no funding for this $20 million
initiative to support innovative public school choice programs such as
worksite schools and inter-district choice programs. The bill would
deny 40 States and districts support to develop and implement new
models for enhancing public school choice.
- GEAR UP. The House Committee bill provides no increase in
funding for GEAR UP, a program that helps low-income students prepare
for college. The President's FY 2001 Budget would provide $325 million
for GEAR UP, a $125 million increase over FY 2000, to support early
intervention and college preparation services for approximately 1.4
million disadvantaged youth. The House bill would deny these services
to as many as 644,000 students.
- Dual Degree Program. The House Committee provides no
funding for Dual Degree Programs for Minority-Serving Institutions,
the President's initiative to increase academic opportunities for
students at minority-serving institutions. The House bill would deny
up to 3,000 students the chance to earn two degrees in five years and
enter professions in which minorities are underrepresented.
- Hispanic Education Action Plan. The House Committee bill
fails to increase the Federal investment in essential components of
the President's Hispanic Education Action Plan. For instance, the
House provides nearly $50 million less than the President's request
for Adult Education English as a Second Language civics. The Committee
level would deny over 165,000 immigrants and limited English
proficient (LEP) adults the literacy and civics skills necessary to
become successful participants in American society. The House bill
also does not include the $48 million requested increase for Bilingual
Education. This reduction would deny grants to over 100 school
districts -- primarily districts with little prior experience serving
limited English proficient students -- and prevent over 2,300
additional new or certified teachers from receiving training and
skills they need to teach LEP students.
- Research and Statistics. The House Committee bill fails to
support increases for education research, including the budget's
requested $30 million increase for Education Research, the $16 million
increase for Statistics, and the $10 million increase for Special
Education Research and Innovation. Now, more than ever, teachers,
parents, and policymakers are demanding research-based information
about what education reforms work and why. The Department of
Education's research investments called for in this budget -- such as
the Interagency Education Research Initiative -- are vital to
generating such a knowledge base for improving student performance.
- Departmental Management. The House Committee does not
provide critical increases in administrative funding requested for the
Department of Education. These funds are necessary to ensure proper
oversight and management of Federal education programs, especially in
the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The House Committee's proposed
funding for OCR would hamper the efficient resolution of complaints,
threaten a return to onerous backlogs, and curtail new technical
assistance activities that allow OCR to work proactively with
customers to prevent discrimination before it occurs.
- America's Tests. The House provides no funds for America's
Tests, which would help principals, teachers, and parents assess how
well students are doing compared to challenging academic standards in
reading and math. The Administration also objects to the language
limitation that would halt the President's efforts to help States and
parents raise academic standards through any federally sponsored
national test including the Administration's proposed voluntary
national test. The Committee bill's language would prohibit
development, pilot testing, field testing, implementation,
administration, and distribution of the tests unless explicitly
authorized. The language prohibition prevents Federal efforts to
promote high standards for all students.
- Department of Education One-Percent Transfer Authority. The
Committee bill would eliminate the Department of Education's authority
to transfer funds between appropriations. The Department has used its
transfer authority only once, in response to a congressional request
to find funding for the agency's financial audit. The Administration
urges the House to restore this authority, which the Department will
continue to use prudently -- and only if necessary -- to respond to
unforeseen needs.
Department of Health and Human Services
The House Committee underfunds public health priorities, including
mental health and substance abuse services, family planning, health care
access for the uninsured, nursing home safety, and infectious diseases.
The Administration is concerned about the following cuts to key health
and social service programs:
- Head Start. The Committee bill provides $600 million less
than the President's request for Head Start, which would result in
50,000 fewer children receiving services than under the President's
budget. It would also severely restrict the funding of critical
legislatively mandated quality activities.
- Child Care Development Block Grant. The Committee bill is
$417 million below the President's requested level of $2 billion. At
this level, approximately 80,000 fewer children would receive child
care services.
- Family Caregivers. The House Committee fails to provide the
President's request of $125 million to support caregiver activities
for 250,000 families who care for elderly relatives with chronic
illness or disabilities. These funds would provide older persons with
quality respite care and other support services necessary for them to
remain independent in their homes and communities. Support for
caregiver activities is a critical component of the President's
long-term care initiative.
- Individual Development Accounts. The House bill fails to
fully fund the President's budget request of $25 million to promote
savings among low-income individuals for a first home, post-secondary
education, a new business or, under the Administration's proposal, a
car that will allow them to get or keep a job.
- Health Care Access. The House Committee fails to provide
funding for the Community Access Program (CAP), which would improve
health care access for many uninsured and underinsured Americans. The
President's request of $125 million for the CAP Initiative would
enable the development of integrated systems of care and better
coordinated health services.
- Family Planning. The House Committee bill does not include
the $35 million increase requested for family planning services. This
increase would provide family planning services to an additional
500,000 clients who are neither Medicaid eligible nor have health
insurance.
- Tobacco Litigation. The House bill does not approve
requested HHS funding to support the Department of Justice's tobacco
litigation efforts. The costs of preventing and treating
tobacco-related disease exceed $50 billion per year, and the
Department of Health and Human Services pays a substantial portion of
these costs. This includes direct health care expenditures in
Medicare, Medicaid, and the Indian Health Service. HHS agencies also
fund research on the treatment and management of smoking-related
illnesses, as well as education and related efforts to prevent youth
smoking. The tobacco litigation is in full accord with the HHS mission
and is vital to efforts to improve the health of all Americans. We
encourage the House to assist in the Federal government's efforts to
recover health care costs incurred as a result of tobacco-related
illnesses.
- Mental Health Services. The House bill would reduce funding
for mental health services by $40 million from the President's
request. The Committee has ignored the request of $30 million for new
Targeted Capacity Expansion grants, which fund early intervention and
prevention, as well as local service capacity expansion.
- Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment. The House
Committee bill reduces total funding for substance abuse by $54
million from the requested level. The bill's level would reduce our
capacity to gain and implement new knowledge on the most effective
treatments available and our ability to provide a rapid, strategic
response to emerging substance abuse trends. The bill also eliminates
funding for High Risk Youth Grants, which would end current efforts to
provide science-based prevention and intervention services to prevent
youth drug, tobacco, and alcohol use. In addition, the bill does not
provide $12 million in Public Health Service evaluation funds for
National Data Collection efforts as requested in the President's
budget.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The House
Committee does not fund the requested increases for some of CDC's
critical public health activities, including the full $26 million
requested increase for infectious diseases, the $5 million increase
for vaccine safety, and the $5 million increase for National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health.
- Health Care Financing Administration Program Management
(HCFA). The House Committee bill funds HCFA at $1.931 billion,
$203 million below the FY 2000 enacted level and $355 million below
the President's FY 2001 request of $2.286 billion. This reduction
would threaten the Administration's efforts to ensure the quality and
safety of nursing homes by forcing States to scale back or eliminate
facility inspections and complaint investigations, and eliminate the
Administration's efforts to tighten oversight of Medicare's
contractors as directed by recent General Accounting Office and Office
of the Inspector General reports. Additionally, the House has provided
an estimated $15 to $19 million of the President's request of $150
million in Medicare+Choice user fees, which would be used to educate
beneficiaries, enabling them to make informed health decisions.
- Office of the Secretary. The House Committee bill fails to
fully fund the Secretary's management and policy oversight activities
as well as key programmatic activities, including civil rights
enforcement and bioterrorism.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The
House Committee bill funds AHRQ at a program level of $224 million,
$26 million below the request of $250 million. Such a reduction would
impair AHRQ's ability to fund important new research on worker health
and to apply advances in information technology to health care. The
Administration urges the House to provide full funding for AHRQ
through one-percent evaluation funding, as requested in the
President's budget.
- HHS One-Percent Transfer Authority. The Administration
objects to the reduction in the transfer authority of the Department
of Health and Human Services. The bill would exclude the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention from this authority. The Administration
strongly urges that the Congress maintain the Department's flexibility
to address emerging issues.
- Needle Exchange. The Administration objects to the
Committee's unconditional ban on the use of funds appropriated in the
bill for needle exchange programs. The Administration urges the House
to make the use of funds for such programs contingent upon
certification by the Secretary of Health and Human Services that these
programs are effective in reducing the transmission of HIV and do not
increase drug abuse, as proposed in the budget and included in the
Senate bill.
- Abortion. The Administration urges the House to strike
sections 508 and 509 of the Committee bill, which would prohibit the
use of funds for abortion. The President believes that abortion should
be safe, legal, and rare. These provisions would continue to limit the
range of conditions under which a woman's health would permit access
to abortion services. Furthermore, section 509 requires a physician to
make a legal determination that these conditions have been met. The
Administration proposes to work with the Congress to address the issue
of abortion funding.
Department of Labor
The House Committee bill would cut the Labor Department by $1.7
billion, or 14 percent, from the request and $0.5 billion from the FY
2000 level. This level would threaten the viability of the new workforce
development system as envisioned in the bipartisan Workforce Investment
Act enacted in 1998. The bill would make deep cuts in worker training
programs aimed at closing the skills gap, preparing workers for the 21st
century, and helping employers reach out to an untapped pool of workers.
These workers include high school dropouts, people leaving welfare,
displaced workers, individuals with disabilities, and ex-offenders. In
addition, the bill would cut programs that ensure safe and healthy
workplaces, enforce domestic child labor laws, promote equal pay, and
improve working conditions and reduce child labor in developing
countries around the world.
In particular, the Administration is concerned about the following
items in the Committee reported bill:
- One-Stop Career Center/America's Labor Market Information
System . The bill would eliminate the existing $110 million
investment in the One-Stop Career Center system, undermining the
foundation of the new workforce investment system intended to ensure
access to the information and services of One-Stop Career Centers for
all Americans. The Committee bill also fails to fund the President's
request for a $44 million enhancement that would improve access to
these services for millions of Americans.
- Dislocated Worker Assistance. The House Committee cuts the
Administration's request for Dislocated Worker assistance by over $389
million, or 22 percent, and provides $207 million less than the FY
2000 level. This level would deny training, job search, and
re-employment services to over 216,000 dislocated workers.
- Re-employment Services. The Committee eliminates the
requested $50 million needed to provide over 222,000 unemployment
insurance claimants with customized re-employment services needed to
speed their re-entry into the work force.
- Adult Job Training Program. The bill would cut funding for
adult training by $93 million, or 10 percent, below the FY 2001
request and FY 2000 enacted levels, and would eliminate training
services for over 37,000 of the 380,000 adults who would otherwise be
served in FY 2001.
- Youth Opportunity Grants/Youth Activities. Funding for the
Youth Opportunity Grants program falls $200 million short of the
President's request and $75 million short of the FY 2000 level, and
would deny 45,000 youth in high-poverty communities access to vital
education, training, and employment assistance and jeopardize the
continuation of five-year Federal grants that were awarded to 36
communities in February. In addition, funding for the Youth Activities
program, which includes Summer Jobs, is cut by $21 million, which
would eliminate almost 13,000 low income youth from the program.
- Fathers Work/Families Win. The House Committee bill does
not support the President's new Fathers Work/Families Win initiative,
for which the Administration has requested $255 million. Building on
the partnerships developed under Welfare-to-Work, this important
initiative would help approximately 80,000 low-income fathers and
working families get the support and skills necessary to support their
families and avoid welfare.
- Youth Violence. The House bill does not provide the
requested funding for two initiatives aimed at reducing youth
violence. It rejects the $40 million requested to add the Department
of Labor to the interagency Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative.
Furthermore, it provides only $14 million of the $75 million requested
to bring young offenders into the workplace through job training and
related services.
- International Labor Activities. The Committee bill fails to
fund the President's proposed $97 million increase to enhance several
critical international labor activities aimed at improving working
conditions in developing countries, eliminating and improving
educational alternatives to abusive child labor, and addressing
HIV/AIDS in the workplace. As a result, the President's requested $70
million enhancement of a comprehensive initiative to reduce
international child labor and improve access to basic education in
developing countries, which builds off the momentum created by the
recent U.S. adoption of the International Labor Organization
convention banning the worst forms of abusive child labor, would be
severely undermined.
- Homeless Veterans. The Committee's $5 million reduction to
the President's request for job assistance to homeless veterans would
result in over 3,000 fewer homeless veterans obtaining meaningful
employment and economic security.
- Disability Initiative. The Committee bill ignores the
President's proposal to enhance the Department's leadership in helping
people with disabilities enter, re-enter, and remain in the workforce
through the establishment of a new Office of Disability Policy.
- Unemployment Insurance (UI) Administration. The House has
adopted the President's proposal to restructure UI administrative
funding to bring it in line with the modern service delivery system,
but has provided $93 million less than necessary to administer the UI
benefit entitlement program, even under continued favorable economic
conditions.
- Worker Protection. The bill provides $92 million less than
requested for critical programs that protect the safety, pensions, and
wages of workers, essentially freezing these programs at their FY 2000
level. The bill provides $44 million less than the President has
requested for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
eliminating planned increases in efforts to help employers ensure safe
and healthful workplaces. The Administration urges the House to
restore the President's request for worker protection programs.
- Information Technology. The bill denies the $54 million
requested for the Department's information technology initiative to
address information security, infrastructure and web development, and
office automation in a more efficient and comprehensive manner,
thereby enhancing the Department's ability to implement its
responsibilities and expand its Internet capacity to serve employers
and the public better.
- National Economic Indicators. The House Committee bill
reduces the request by $13 million, which would deny improvements to
some of the most sensitive and important economic data collected by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including expanding price, output, and
productivity measures for the service sector, improving State and
local employment and unemployment data, and surveying how Americans
spend their time in work and non-work activities, including child and
elder care.
National Labor Relations Board
The House bill would fund the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
at the FY 2000 enacted level, $10 million, or five percent, below the
President's request. As a result, NLRB would be forced to curtail
backlog reduction efforts, essential training, and information
technology investments.
Social Security Administration
At the House Committee funding level, the Social Security
Administration would not be able to hire thousands of direct service
employees, resulting in longer wait times for individuals filing
retirement and disability claims, and diminished service for individuals
who call the agency's 1-800 phone service.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Administration appreciates the Committee's full funding for
Corporation for Public Broadcasting's (CPB) FY 2003 request for general
programming and system support, and urges the Committee to provide full
funding in 2001 for CPB's digital transition initiative, which will help
ensure that the public broadcasting system can meet the
federally-mandated May 2003 deadline for digital broadcasting.
Internet Access in Schools and Libraries
The bill contains objectionable language that would deny Federal
funds for computers and Internet access to schools and libraries that
have not installed software on their computers to block Internet access
to illegal and inappropriate materials to minors. Currently, schools and
libraries use a wide range of technology tools and monitoring techniques
to ensure that children do not encounter inappropriate material and
dangerous situations while online.
Recent studies confirm that virtually all schools that have Internet
access have acceptable use policies in place. While the Administration
strongly supports efforts to ensure that schools and libraries protect
minors from inappropriate materials, the Federal Government should not
mandate a particular type of technology, such as filtering or blocking
software, in a dynamically changing technology environment. Rather, the
Administration would support less burdensome and restrictive language
that would require that schools and libraries develop their own
acceptable use plans at the local level and certify their
implementation.
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