AUCD Special Appropriations Report FY 2009
February 26, 2009
Fiscal Year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations
The House is expected to take up an omnibus Wednesday that consists of the nine FY09 appropriations bills that Congress has not yet passed, including the L-HHS-ED funding bill that provides money for most AUCD network programs. Three appropriations bills -- Defense, Military Construction-VA and Homeland Security -- were signed into law in late September as part of the continuing resolution that is funding the nine unfinished bills at FY08 levels. Senate Democrats plan to approve the $410 billion omnibus spending bill by late next week to beat the March 6 deadline when the current continuing resolution expires.
House Republicans have been pressing for an extension of the current omnibus at FY08 levels. Several Senate Republicans are also speaking out against the spending bill and could try to filibuster it.
A table comparing the FY 09 Presidents Budget and House and Senate L-HHS-ED funding bills for selected programs of importance to the AUCD network is below.
DD Act Programs
AUCD is pleased to report that the UCEDDs are slated to receive a $1 million increase over FY 08 to $37.9 million in the final omnibus bill. State DD Councils would get a $1.8 million increase to $74.3 million; P&As receive a $1 million increase to $40 million; Projects of National Significance are funded at $14 million (of this amount, it is expected that approximately half or $7 million would be dedicated to the Title II Family Support program); and voting access is level funded at $17.4 million.
LEND programs
The final omnibus bill provides an additional $2 million increase for the LEND programs over the FY 08 level (the level requested by AUCD). Both bills provide the fully authorized amount of $42 million to fund activities in HRSA authorized under the Combating Autism Act. The appropriations report states that "within the funding provided [to HRSA]for autism and other related developmental disorders, an increase of not less than $2 million is provide to continue and expand research on evidence-based practices for interventions for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, for developmental of guidelines for those intervention, and for information dissemination. In addition, an increase of no less than $2 million is provided to continue and expand the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities program."
CDC
A total of $6.6 billion for the public health programs administered by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $239 million above last year. The CDC Center on Birth Defects and DD is increased by $10.6 million to $138 million.
NIH
The agreement provides $30.3 billion - $938 million above last year - for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD receives a $35.4 million increase to approximately $1.3 billion. The House and Senate also contain report language recognizing the outstanding contributions of the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Centers (IDDRC) and urging the NICHD to restore recent funding reductions to these Centers, and "to provide additional resources to the IDDRCS so that they can lead our effort to develop effective prevention and intervention strategies for children and adults with developmental disabilities."
Education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B State Grants receives $558 million above 2008 for a total of $11.5 billion in the bill. According to Rep. Obey's (D-WI) statement, this amount increases the share of special education costs met by the federal government to 17.4 percent. The Part C Early Intervention program would be increased by $3.7 million to almost $440 million. The State Personnel Development program receives a $25 million increase to $48 billion, one of the few programs that received the higher of the two House and Senate bills, instead of splitting the difference. Several other Part D programs also receive increases in the final bill.
The final bill includes funding for the Higher Education Demonstration Projects that have repeatedly been zeroed out in the President's budget requests. AUCD has already begun advocating for the newly authorized Higher Education programs for students with intellectual disabilities in for FY 2010.
Rehabilitation Services and Disability Research
The Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants would receive its cost of living increase in the final omnibus bill to $2.9 billion. Supported employment grants are level-funded at $29 million.
Within the funds provided for Assistive Technology, the bill includes $25,660,000 for State grants, $4,300,000 for Protection and Advocacy, and $1,000,000 for National activities.
The bill specifies $107,741,000 for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). The report language directs the increased funding to be used to restore the number of rehabilitation research and training centers focusing on the issues of traumatic brain injury, arthritis, neuromuscular disease and spinal cord injury.
National Service
The conference report for the omnibus includes $680,564,000 for the operating expenses of the programs administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which is $35,355,000 more than the fiscal year 2008 funding level and $61,221,000 more than the President's budget request. The bill includes $131,075,000 for the National Service Trust and $71,715,000 for the Corporation for National and Community Service Salaries and Expenses, which is $3,956,000 more than the fiscal year 2008.
Social Security Administration
To address the backlog of disability claims at the Social Security Administration and support field offices, the bill provides $709 million above 2008 for a total of $10.5 billion.
It is important to remember that these funds are being appropriated through the annual funding process and are unrelated to the Recovery Act/Stimulus funds that were the subject of last week's special In Brief report. In addition, President Obama is expected to release a budget outline this Thursday for fiscal year 2010 annual funding with a more detailed budget coming out later in the Spring.
Watch for alerts related to passage of this final omnibus in the next few days if the Democrats encounter strong opposition in the House or Senate!
