 |
 | |
        | |
|
Congressional Budget FY 2006Background:The annual Congressional budget resolution is an agreement between the House and Senate on a budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year on the government’s discretionary and mandatory spending. This resolution may include reconciliation directives that would instruct one or more committees to reduce Medicare and Medicaid expenditures to meet the spending and revenue levels included in the budget resolution. As you may recall, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which produced significant Medicare and Medicaid cuts, was one such reconciliation measure. This year President Bush’s budget would focus on fighting terrorism and protecting the homeland while eliminating other government programs. The budget called for a five-year freeze in domestic spending to get control of the federal budget deficit. This budget also would cap the growth of overall discretionary spending, appropriated funds that Congress controls, to 2.1%, which is lower than the projected rates based on inflation. If this five-year cap is established, then domestic discretionary programs would be cut severely each year. "The reduction in domestic discretionary programs that would be required to comply with the caps would be about six times as deep, …, as the cuts achieved between 1990 and 1998 under the discretionary caps in place at that time."1 Once again, the budget eliminates all funding for the Title VII health
professions programs, except for $10 million for Scholarships for Disadvantaged
Students and $1 million for Workforce Information and Analysis. The President’s
requested $319 million for ARHQ, which is the same as FY05 and includes
all funds allocated via transfers from other public health service agencies. 1Horney, James and Richard Kogan. Administration’s Five-Year Caps on Appropriations Would Lead to Substantial Reductions in Important Domestic Programs. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. February 25, 2005.
| |