Budget Highlights

Here are key elements of the federal budget for fiscal 2000:

* Boosts defense spending by $17.3 billion over last year, to $267.7 billion; provisions include a 4.8% pay hike for active-duty military personnel on Jan. 1.

* Provides $1.3 billion to continue President Clinton’s centerpiece proposal to hire 100,000 more teachers for the nation’s schools.

* Authorizes $595 million for the first installment of Clinton’s proposal to hire up to 50,000 more police officers.

* Provides $27.7 billion for highway spending, a $2.2-billion increase, and $5.8 billion for public transit, a $407-million increase. Included is $50 million for extending the Los Angeles subway to North Hollywood.

* Allocates $1.8 billion to help Israel and the Palestinians carry out last year’s Wye River peace accord and offers debt relief to Third World countries.

* Orders departments and agencies to cut spending by 0.38%--for an overall total of $2.1 billion--to help pay for last-minute spending requests by the White House. Cabinet officers would choose which programs to scale back. No one cut could exceed 15% of an agency’s budget, and the military pay raise has been exempted.

* Reimposes a portion of the Reagan-era restrictions on providing foreign aid to family planning organizations that lobby for abortion rights in other countries, a measure Republican conservatives tied to payment of almost $1 billion the United States owes the United Nations.

* Extends a series of tax breaks that otherwise would have expired, including a tax credit for research and development, sought by high-technology firms.

Source: House Appropriations Committee, Office of Management and Budget