Highlights from the Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Proposal

By Leecia Eve on 02/17/2010 @ 02:00 PM

President Obama’s proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2011 (which begins October 1, 2010), has many good provisions which, if enacted, will help make our communities and American families stronger while also addressing many pressing issues around the world. The Administration proposed cutting or eliminating programs it believes no longer warrant taxpayer support, especially in light of our growing budget deficit, but the Administration also called for increased funding for programs and efforts that reflect shared priorities.

Here are some budget highlights we wanted to share.

Creating Jobs – Outlines comprehensive measures designed to spur significant job creation in the short and long term, including: significantly increasing funding for research and development that focuses on energy independence, clean energy and biomedical research; creating a $4 billion National Infrastructure and Innovation and Finance Fund to invest in projects of regional or national significance; expanding broadband development, including to rural communities; and providing small businesses tax incentives that encourage additional investment and job creation.

Providing Tax Relief for the Middle Class – Extends by one year the Making Work Pay Tax Cut, first enacted last year as the largest middle-class tax cut in American history, helping 110 million families; and nearly doubles the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle-class families.

Helping Families Care for Their Loved Ones

• Expanding Child Care – Provides an additional $989 for Head Start and Early Head Start and an additional $1.6 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund, designed to improve the health, safety and outcomes for our children. The increased funding will enable States to provide child care subsidies to 1.6 million children, 235,000 more than would otherwise been served.
• Promoting Paid Family Leave – Establishes a $50 million State Paid Leave Fund that will provide competitive grants to states to launch paid-leave programs, building upon the efforts of some states that have already established such programs.
• Aiding Care Givers – Funds the Administration on Aging’s Caregiver Initiative to the tune of $103 million to provide new resources to local agencies that provide critical help to seniors and caregivers. All of these efforts are critical as more and more Americans are shouldering the burden of providing for their children and caring for an ill or elderly parent at the same time.

Ending Childhood Hunger in the U.S. – Increases funding by more than $400 million to end childhood hunger.

Expanding Family Planning – Makes clear a strong commitment to family planning by increasing funding to a total of $327 million for Title X Family Planning programs, expanding access to contraception, health information and preventive services.

Enforcing Equal Pay – Increases funding for the EEOC and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to improve compliance, public education and enforcement of equal pay law as well as to research and share data on income and job disparities. This is especially important as women make up half all workers and seven out of ten families with children are made up of either two working parents or a single working parent, usually a woman.

Ending Violence Against Women – Provides $535 million, an increase of more than twenty percent, to support victims of domestic abuse as well as sexual assault. The budget also increases funding for family violence prevention services, battered women’s shelters, and for the domestic violence hotline.

Expanding Educational Opportunity – Contains a comprehensive approach to making college more affordable, including expanding Pell grants, proposing a $12 billion American Graduation Initiative to help community colleges improve their quality, partner with businesses, and transfer rates, and increase support for working students with the goal of five million more college students by 2020, making the U.S. number one in terms of the percentage of citizens who are college graduates. The budget also supports legislation that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate that would reform and make less expensive the student loan process by eliminating billions of dollars in bank subsidies and instead lending directly to students.

Preventing Disease and Expanding Access to Health Care – Supports a major expansion of health centers to provide affordable and high quality primary and preventive care to millions of Americans in underserved populations, including the uninsured. As the U.S. now spends $150 billion each year to treat obesity-related diseases – ten percent of all medical spending – the budget seeks to improve access to healthy meals and reduce childhood obesity rates by providing an additional $1 billion for school meals and other child nutrition programs.

Saving Lives Around the World Through a Commitment to Global Health – Provides $8.5 billion to expand significantly the Global Health Initiative to save lives with smart health and development investments, including increased efforts to reduce the mortality of mothers and children under five, avoid unintended pregnancies, and work toward the elimination of some neglected tropical diseases. In presenting the State Department portion of the FY 2011 Budget, Jacob Lew, Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, said: “we’ll be able to prevent . . . 300,000 pregnancy-related death and three million newborn and early childhood deaths.”

Yes, the President proposed FY 2011 budget has much in to applaud, but we have a way to go before it becomes a reality and is enacted into law.

In the coming months, House and Senate appropriations subcommittees will consider the various portions of the proposed budget. They’ll have congressional hearings and, if they agree with the President’s budget ideas, will craft legislation that seeks to effectuate what the President has proposed. In each case, however, votes at the subcommittee and full Appropriations Committee levels will be required before the House and Senate in turn vote on what will ultimately be nearly a dozen appropriations bills.

What does all of this mean? For starters, it means we can’t take anything for granted and so we’ll do our best to keep you informed about key legislative action on many of these budget priorities. And, as always, we encourage you to speak to your congressional representatives about the specific budget priorities that matter most to you. For more information about the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/.

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