SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY THE BUDGET

February 27, 2004
Press Release

FEBRUARY 27, 2004

SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY -
THE BUDGET

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued today's "Bush Administration's Misstatement of the Day" on the budget.

In his Budget Message to Congress on February 2, 2004, President Bush said:

".this Budget addresses the needs of a great and compassionate Nation, whose values are strong, and whose institutions of hope are enduring."
According to a new analysis of President Bush's FY'05 Budget proposal by the Center on Budget and Policy Priority, however, "the President's budget calls for significant cuts in domestic discretionary spending over the next five years." The report concluded that some of the programs or program areas that would be cut are:
  • Education for the Disadvantaged: By 2009, Title I funding (funding for school districts to improve educational outcomes for low-income and other disadvantaged children) would fall $660 million below the 2004 level adjusted for inflation.
  • Environment: In 2005, funding for the Clean Water Act State Revolving Fund, which loans money to states to pay for sewage treatment plants, would be cut 37 percent below the 2004 level adjusted for inflation. The budget calls for even deeper cuts in this area by 2009.
  • Veterans Health Benefits: Funding for veteran's health services in 2009 would fall 17 percent - or $5.7 billion - below the 2004 level, adjusted for inflation.
  • Housing Assistance: Under the President's budget, funding for the housing voucher program, the nation's principal low-income housing assistance program would be cut sharply. By 2009, state and local housing agencies would be forced to reduce the number of low-income families and elderly and disabled households assisted by 800,000 - or 40 percent - or to reduce sharply the level of assistance provided to voucher tenants by raising the rents these families pay by an average of $2,800 a year. Most of these families live below the poverty line.
  • Head Start and WIC: Head Start funding would fall 7 percent below baseline levels in 2009, resulting in an estimated reduction of 62,000 in the number of children able to participate in Head Start programs. In the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, funding cuts would cause the number of low-income pregnant women and young children at nutritional risk that the programs serves to be cut by approximately 450,000 by 2009.