Social Services to Feel Squeeze

WASHINGTON -- Most domestic programs were tightened or given only marginal increases in a budget blueprint dominated by tax cuts and higher spending on national security.

But President Bush found room for a provocative move in education -- a 50% increase in proposed spending on vouchers, the controversial plan to pay private-school tuition for children in low-quality public schools.

Bush’s broad commitment to reducing centralized control of government was reflected in other aspects of his domestic budget. In health care, public housing and a number of other federal programs, he proposed giving the states greater decision-making responsibility.

The new budget calls for $75 million next year for education vouchers, part of a $753-million program to increase school choice through support for charter and magnet schools, tax credits for parents who pull their children out of low-performing schools, and other options.

Vouchers have been at the center of one of the most vociferous battles over education reform in recent years. Bush’s proposal to up the ante when his request for $50 million in the current budget year has not been approved was seen by opponents as almost a provocation.

“When you consider all the unfunded needs of local school districts, this is clearly a political, not a practical, calculation,” said Celia Lose, spokeswoman for the American Federation of Teachers.

Overall, Bush’s new budget calls for $53.1 billion in total spending for the Education Department. That is $2.8 billion, or 5.6%, above what Bush sought a year ago. But it is several billion dollars less than what the GOP-controlled Senate has approved for the current fiscal year -- a sign that education, like other domestic issues, will be a congressional battleground.

Included in the education budget are sizable requests to help low-income schoolchildren in the Title I program (an additional $1 billion, to $12.4 billion); disabled children through special education grants to states ($1 billion more, to $9.5 billion); and Pell Grants for needy college students ($1.9 billion more, to $12.7 billion).

Education Secretary Rod Paige called those three proposed increases “monumental.”

But critics said the Bush blueprint fell far short of the promised full funding for the president’s own landmark program for school reform, the No Child Left Behind Act signed into law last year.

If many education groups were unhappy with what Bush proposed for schools, they fared better than most advocates for federal programs in the fields of housing, energy, the environment and health and human services.

Housing

The president proposed ending funding for the Hope VI program, which pays for the rehabilitation or replacement of derelict public housing projects. The program, which Bush proposed funding at $574 million in fiscal 2003, is the only large source of federal money for capital improvements for public housing.

Low-income housing advocates have long criticized the program, because demolition has resulted in a net loss of housing units. But they said they had hoped to reform the program rather than see it disappear.

The president also proposed shifting to the states authority over the $13.6-billion program for housing vouchers known as Section Eight. It gives low-income Americans financial aid so they can afford homes in the private housing market.

Environment

The environment budget would have had to climb to $30.2 billion in fiscal 2004 to keep up with inflation, according to the White House. So the request for $28 billion represented a 7% cut.

“There is a thin veneer of commitment” to environmental programs, said Marybeth Beetham of Defenders of Wildlife. “I think they like to give lip service to it by putting increases in a few areas, but at the same time they’re making huge cuts in other areas.”

But Bush administration officials described the budget as a sincere commitment to a better environment. “This budget fully reflects the obligation we all have -- government, industry, indeed every American -- to be good, faithful stewards of the natural environment entrusted to us,” EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said.

Clean-water programs were slated for the biggest cuts. A revolving fund that helps states pay for sewage treatment plants was cut by $500 million, to $850 million. And the budget cut out a fund that allows Congress to select special water purification or sewage treatment programs for federal funding.

The president’s budget did propose boosting the Superfund program by $150 million, to $1.39 billion, to clean up toxic sites.

It also included funding for some of the president’s initiatives that have yet to be embraced by Congress, including $7.7 million to help the agency set up the president’s Clear Skies program to cut pollution from power plants.

The Interior Department’s budget counted on $2.4 billion in revenue from leasing rights to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2005, a presidential goal that Congress has rejected so far.

Both Democrats and Republicans were critical of parts of the president’s blueprint for the environment, energy and natural resources.

Health, Human Services

Almost half of the half-trillion-dollar budget for the Health and Human Services Department is devoted to Medicare. The health-care program now serves 41 million senior and disabled Americans, and it promises only to grow bigger.

Yet the HHS budget included almost no details about the president’s plan to reform the $253-billion program, except for a pledge to spend $6 billion next year and $400 billion over 10 years to “modernize” it.

Asked how the $400 billion would be spent, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson replied, “We are still working on it.”

In fact, so stung was the administration by reactions to earlier descriptions of its Medicare reform proposal that it has “gone back to the drawing board,” said one official.

Administration officials last month leaked information that their proposal would tie seniors’ eligibility for prescription drug coverage to participation in an HMO or other managed-care network.

Monday, they said only that the bulk of the $400 billion in new funding would be devoted to a prescription drug benefit and that the revised program would not be built on Medicare HMOs.

On programs from Medicaid to foster care, the budget proposed major changes that would give the states more say in deciding how to use federal funds while -- in some cases -- giving them less federal money to work with over time.

Transportation

Battles already were shaping up on Capitol Hill over funding for highways, public transit and Amtrak.

The budget calls for spending $29.3 billion on highways, but a spokesman for House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) said that would be a “step back” from the $31.8 billion provided for highways in fiscal 2002.

The administration’s proposal to save money by eliminating heavily subsidized long-distance trains is expected to run into stiff congressional opposition.

Routes that should be phased out were not named, but the budget did note that some “regularly lose hundreds of dollars each time a passenger steps aboard,” including the Los Angels-to-Orlando, Fla., Sunset Limited and the Chicago-to-Los Angeles Southwest Chief.

For some of these trains, the budget said, it would be cheaper for Amtrak to buy each passenger a plane ticket.

The administration proposed $900 million for Amtrak, which had requested $1.5 billion or more.

Justice

The Justice Department budget would slash the amount of money available to state and local governments, eliminating $140 million for juvenile-justice programs and cutting “Justice Assistance” grants by about $200 million, or roughly 25%.

The budget would provide no new funding to hire police officers under Community Oriented Policing Services -- the Clinton-era project aimed at putting 100,000 more cops on the beat.

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Times Staff Writers Vicki Kemper, Richard B. Schmitt, Elizabeth Shogren and Richard Simon contributed to this report.