Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 2099 - Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill, FY 1996

(House Floor)
(Sponsors: Livingston (R), Louisiana; Lewis (R), California)

This Statement of Administration Policy provides the Administration's views on H.R. 2099, the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill, FY 1996, as reported by the House Appropriations Committee.

The Administration is committed to balancing the Federal Budget by FY 2005. The President's budget proposes to reduce discretionary spending for FY 1996 by $5 billion in outlays below the FY 1995 enacted level. While the Administration supports reducing spending, we do not share the priorities reflected in the Committee's mark or support the level of funding assumed by the Committee's 602(b) allocations. The Administration must evaluate each bill both in terms of funding levels provided and the share of total resources available for remaining priorities. This bill ls estimated to be $11 billion below the President's request.

For the reasons discussed below, the President would veto the bill if it were presented to him in its current form.

Corporation for National and Community Service

The Committee would terminate the Corporation for National and Community service, one of this Administration's top priorities. The Administration strongly opposes the Committee's decision to eliminate this important initiative and urges the House to reconsider and to provide funding at the requested level of $819 million. Without the full request, nearly 50,000 young Americans would lose the opportunity to help their communities, through AmeriCorps, to address vital local needs such am health care, crime prevention, and education while at the same time earning a monetary award to help them pursue additional education or training. In addition, some 580,000 children, adolescents, and college students would lose the chance to serve their communities through the Learn and Serve program.

Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

The Administration strongly opposes the excessive cut of over $5 billion to the President's request for HUD. The budget can be balanced by FY 2005 while preserving essential commitments to low-income: households and communities. By providing no new housing vouchers, the Committee breaks with a 20-year bipartisan precedent at a time when the number of families with severe housing needs has been rising. The Committee would override a long-standing provision that bases the rents of public housing tenants on their ability to pay, and would reduce funding for homeless programs in HUD by $544 million from the previous year. The Committee would also impose a one-year moratorium on subsidies for EHA multifamily loan guarantees that would shrink the already inadequate supply of affordable housing for low- income families and the elderly. Additional information on the Administration's objections to the Committee reductions in HUD programs is contained in the enclosure.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The Administration strongly opposes the Committee's 34- percent reduction in EPA's budget, which would have a crippling effect on the Government's ability to protect public health and the environment. Particularly objectionable is the 50-percent cut in enforcement, which would decimate EPA's ability to enforce environmental laws; elimination of funding to help municipalities provide safe drinking water; and the 36-percent reduction in Superfund which could result in continued exposure to dangerous chemicals for hundreds of thousands of citizens living near hazardous waste sites.

The Administration finds it unconscionable that the Committee would fund over $40 million in congressional earmarks that are low environmental priorities while making drastic reductions in important programs — reductions that would hamper our efforts in environmental protection.

The Administration also strongly objects to the numerous legislative "riders" that would essentially overturn existing law. These riders would jeopardize public health by blocking implementation or enforcement of rules needed to ensure safe water, food, and air. Additional information on the Administration's objections to the Committee reductions in EPA programs is contained in the enclosure.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Administration supports the Committee's decision to restore many of the reductions to science programs included in the Subcommittee bill. However, the Committee has restored these cuts by reducing the Earth Observing System by $330 million. The Administration objects to this 35-percent reduction, which could impact nearly 3,000 jobs at Goddard and across the country. The Administration also objects to the provision of the bill related to closing NASA Centers by FY 1998. NASA Administrator Goldin has outlined a responsible restructuring plan that avoids closing any of these important national resources. Finally, the Administration objects to the Committee's reductions to other important technology programs, including NASA's contributions to the inter-agency High Performance Computing and Communications and the Partnership for Next Generation of Vehicles (clean car) initiatives.

The Administration would strongly oppose any amendment that would terminate or significantly reduce funding for the space station. Such action would jeopardize over 30,000 space station- related jobs located in Florida, Texas, California, and Alabama. It would also significantly undermine the critical partnerships that the U.S. has developed with Russia, Canada, Europe, and Japan on this important, cooperative project.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI)

The Administration opposes the Committee's decision to terminate the President's Community Development Financial Institutions initiative, one of this Administration's top priorities. The Administration strongly urges the House to reconsider and to provide funding at the requested level of $144 million. Without full funding, the CDFI Fund would be unable to provide: $20 million in direct loan subsidies to support over $56 million of direct loans to CDFIs; $72 million in grants, technical assistance, and other financial assistance to CDFIs; and over $46 million in community development incentives for depository institutions. The Fund's investments in CDFIs, banks, and thrifts would leverage an estimated $600 million in investments, loans, and financial services in the country's most distressed communities.

Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)

The Administration strongly objects to the committee's elimination of the Council on Environmental Quality. This action would deprive the President of environmental policy counsel and represents an inappropriate interference in the organization of the President's policy offices.

Additional Administration concerns with the bill as reported by the Committee arm contained in the attachment.

Attachment

Attachment (House Floor)

ADDITIONAL CONCERNS

H.R. 2099 — DEPARTMENTS OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL. FY 1996

(AS REPORTED BY THE HOUSE COMMITTEE)

The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress to address the following concerns.

Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

The Administration opposes the Committee's $2.4 billion reduction in capital funds for public housing. This reduction would severely impede demolition of the worst projects and prevent improvements needed to ensure the remaining housing stock's viability. The $720 million reduction in operating funds for public housing would force localities to raise rents and curtail security, maintenance, and drug elimination efforts.

The Committee would require hundreds of thousands of the poorest residents of public housing and other assisted housing to pay "minimum rents," taking a high proportion of their income regardless of ability to pay. Rents would increase by an average of $400 to $600 a year. All residents would face hardship, and some would be forced into homelessness. These and other provisions would place the heaviest burden of budget balancing on those least able to bear it.

The Committee would also out $30 million from the emergency food and shelter assistance program operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Restoration of these funds would enable more communities to build continuum-of-care systems to return the homeless to the mainstream.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Operating Programs. The Administration strongly opposes the Committee's $821 million reduction to the President's request for EPA's operating programs (research, regulatory development, enforcement, and state grants). This 24- percent reduction would have devastating consequences for protection of public health and the environment. Particularly egregious are reductions that would:

• reduce EPA enforcement by nearly 50 percent, thereby decimating the Federal Government's ability to enforce environmental laws and declaring open season for polluters;
  
  
• out salary funding by over $300 million, causing layoffs of potentially several thousand workers whose efforts are the key to protecting public health from the effects of pollution;
  
  
• eliminate the Environmental Technology Initiative, which is spurring development of new technologies to protect public health, reduce costs, and create new American jobs and export markets.

Drinking Water State Revolving Funds. The Administration strongly objects to the committee's decision to provide no funds for Drinking Water State Revolving Funds in FY 1996 and eliminate all previous funding, contrary to the agreement reflected in H.R. 1944, the pending rescission bill. Municipalities need almost $9 billion to cover capital costs related to compliance with established standards and additional billions to comply with future requirements needed to prevent problems much as the 1993 Cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee that killed 100 people and caused illness in another 400,000. Most affected by this proposal would be the almost 30 million people who are served by a system that has violated a drinking water standard in the past year.

Clean Water State Revolving Funds. The Administration object# to the Committee's $360 million, or 23-percent, reduction to the President's request for Clean Water State Revolving Funds. Municipalities still have needs for water quality protection that will require $137 billion in funding. Further, the Committee's proposal might bar any FY 1996 spending because of bill language prohibiting obligations until reauthorization of the Clean Water Act. Reauthorization is unlikely to occur in the near future. The Senate has not yet drafted a bill, and the President has said that he would veto the House bill in its current form, such a funding bar would detrimentally affect construction industry jobs, harm water quality, and could require layoffs in State water programs, which would also be affected by the Prohibition.

Superfund. The Administration opposes the Committee's proposed $560 million decrease in funding for Superfund cleanups, a 36-percent reduction from the President's request. The Committee's action could eliminate planned funding for about 120 new, long-term cleanup projects and jeopardize 160 actions to address more immediate public health threats. These drastic cuts would mean continued exposure to dangerous chemicals for the hundreds of thousands of citizens living near these cleanup sites. Just as troubling ls the prohibition on spending after December 31, 1995, if the statute is not reauthorized. A reauthorization bill has not yet been drafted by either body, and this prohibition could endanger public health by shutting down the program — and the cleanup — at hundreds of sites. Finally, the Administration objects to the Committee's proposal to have the taxpaying public pay for all cleanups, rather than the polluters who created the problem.

Funding Restrictions. The Administration strongly opposes — and urges the House to delete — the numerous legislative "riders" (including any new riders proposed on the floor) that would essentially overturn existing law to eater to special interests without any hearings on their national environmental impact. These riders would jeopardize public health by blocking implementation or enforcement of rules needed to ensure safe water, food, and air. Included among these provisions are riders that would:

• virtually shutdown the BPA Water Quality Program by prohibiting most Clean Water Act spending, even when required by court order. These prohibitions would jeopardize the significant progress towards cleaner water that has been achieved over the past 23 years;
  
  
• jeopardize the safety of the Nation's food supply through a "backdoor" elimination of the Delaney Clause of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, without replacing it with a health-based standard to protect consumers;
  
  
• prevent ERA from effectively implementing clean Air Act programs essential for protecting the public from air pollutants that cause respiratory problems and cancer; and
  
  
• mandate Toxic Release inventory (TRI) restrictions that would prevent EPA from collecting information, for public use, on toxic chemical releases.

Veterans Affairs (VA)

The Administration appreciates the level of funding that the Committee has provided for VA Medical Cara. However, the Administration objects to the provision of the Committee bill that would direct the use of $204 million in mandatory program savings from veterans' benefits to fund increases in discretionary programs. These mandatory savings are needed for the authorizing committees to meet their spending reduction targets. Shifting these savings to the discretionary side of the budget would put pressure on the authorizing committees to replace these lost savings by making further cuts in veterans' benefits.

The Administration objects to the reduction of $63 million in General Operating Expenses (seven percent of the requested amount). This would jeopardize the Department's efforts to combine manpower with information technology to reduce the 213 days it takes to process a veteran's benefit claim and to reduce the 448,589 backlog of pending applications.

The Administration objects to the provision of the Committee bill that would eliminate compensation to incompetent veterans with no dependents and estates over $25,000. This provision would unfairly single out a group of veterans for diminished benefits based on their mental competence and their modest assets.

Council on Environmental Quality

Based on the principle of comity between co-equal branches, the Executive Branch traditionally does not comment on the Legislative Branch appropriations bill, and the Congress traditionally pays appropriate regard to the President's request for the agencies within the Executive Office of the President. This comity avoids inappropriate interference by either branch in the details of the organization of the other, and permits each to organize its own policy offices as it believes will best serve the country.

The Committee bill clearly and inappropriately breaks with this longstanding practice consistently observed by both branches over many years. Consequently, the Administration strongly objects to the Committee's elimination of the Council on Environmental Quality (CBQ). Eliminating CEQ would deprive the President of environmental policy counsel, severely hamper the President's ability to coordinate the development of environmental policy throughout the Executive Branch, and impede the President's ability to resolve interagency disputes.

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)

The Committee bill would fund the CPSC at $40 million, $4 million, or nine percent, below the President's request. This reduction from the requested level would create a significant challenge for CPSC to accomplish its mission of protecting American consumers.