SCHUMER: BUSH BUDGET LEAVES NEW YORK BEHIND

Early Schumer Analysis Reveals Cuts to Local Law Enforcement, Amtrak, Housing, and Health programs

Homeland Security again gets short shrift from Administration

US Senator Charles E. Schumer today said that the Bush Administration’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year would take a knife to a number of key programs relied on by New Yorkers, ranging from hospitals to local law enforcement programs to hospitals and schools. Schumer added that the Administration's failure to provide dollars for homeland security falls way short of what is needed.

"We haven't seen a budget this bad for New York in a long time. Usually in a bad news budget, you can find some good things. In this one, that's very hard to do. This budget leaves New York behind," Schumer said. "Health care, housing, local law enforcement and other key areas all get hit. Congress clearly has its work cut out for it and needs to work to ensure the final version of the budget restores what the President tries to cut.”

The following is a breakdown of some key programs and how the Bush Administration’s budget proposal would impact New York, according to an early analysis by Schumer’s office:

Homeland Security: There are two major streams of Homeland Security funding that are vital to New York's fight against crime and terrorism -- funds for State and Local First Responders, and grants to High-Threat Urban Areas:
• The Grants to State and Local First Responders are comprised of the Basic Formula Grant Program, the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Grant Program, and the Citizen Corps Program. These monies are allocated according to guidelines of the USA PATRIOT Act - a funding formula which requires a mandatory minimum of 0.75 percent to each state (40 percent of the total). Secretary Ridge then divides the remaining 60 percent of the funding by population, a funding formula that is unfair to both large states and high threat areas. In FY 2004, these three programs received a combined $2.2 billion in funds. In FY 2005, they would receive dramatic cuts, with just$1.2 billion proposed for the programs.

Once again this year, the President’s budget uses successful justice and first responder programs to pay for its Homeland Security Initiatives. While the administration devotes $2.2billion to High Threat Urban Area funding and $1.2 billion to State and Local Grants to First Responders, it does so by gutting some programs (FIRE Grants, COPS) and completely cutting others (State and Local Aid, Juvenile Justice). The net result is only $788 million worth of new dollars to First Responders in FY 2005:

President's Proposal in Fiscal Year 2005
$3,400,000,000-- First Responder Funding
($1,350,000,000)-- State and Local Aid Funding
($250,000,000)-- Existing FIRE Grants
($659,000,000)-- COPS Funding
($353,000,000)-- Juvenile Justice

“This is an accounting gimmick where the administration says it is providing extraordinary amounts of money to first responders when it is really killing important law enforcement programs," Schumer said. "They seem to be stuck on this idea that you can improve security without spending the dollars. It's a 'rob Peter to pay Paul' strategy that doesn't add up."

COPS Program: For the fourth consecutive year, President Bush has proposed eliminating the entire hiring component of the COPS program, a cut of $115 million. Schumer was a co-author of the landmark legislation creating the program in 1994. Since that time $622 million has gone to New York State for hiring officers. In Fiscal Year 2003 alone, New York State received a total of $20.4 million for hiring new officers: $975,984 for officers in schools, $8.4 million for 70 officers on the beat, and $11 million to pay for homeland security overtime. COPS funding also goes towards community policing, crime-fighting technology, training and crime prevention initiatives.

In the Fiscal Year 2004 budget, the COPS program got $481 million nationwide, with $115 million specifically for hiring additional officers. In the new proposal for Fiscal Year 2005, there would be $97 million total, including $17 million for new training and technology and $20 million for assisting Indian law enforcement, and no money at all for hiring.

FIRE Grants: The President's proposal would cut FIRE grants by $250 million, or 25%. The FIRE program sends money directly to local fire departments to enhance their ability to protect the health and safety of the public and firefighting personnel facing. Funding is available for activities such as hiring additional firefighting personnel; specialized emergency response training for situations like terrorist attacks; the creation of wellness and fitness programs for firefighters; equipment and facility upgrades; and fire prevention programs. Last year, more than 450 New York fire departments secured over $33 million in FIRE grants -- more than twice the $14.7 million they won the year before. Schumer helped write the original legislation creating the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program in 2001 and also played a central role in preventing the Bush Administration from eliminating funding for the program from the 2001 budget.

Education: The budget proposal fails to raise education spending to the levels committed to in the landmark No Child Left Behind legislation:
• IDEA: In the 28-year history of IDEA, the federal funding contribution has always fallen far short of the full congressional commitment. The President's FY 2005 budget request is no exception, calling only for an increase of $1 billion, which is $1 billion short of the amount set in bipartisan legislation to fully fund IDEA over 8 years. The President's proposed increase of $1 billion would only fund IDEA at 21 percent instead of the promised 40 percent promised by Congress when the law was originally enacted. Schumer estimates that New York's share of the program would increase only $66.5 million over the FY04 level -- from $669.5 million to $736 million. This is $66.5 million short of the increase called for under the bipartisan legislation. Under the President's FY05 budget, New York City would see an increase of only $23.7 million -- half of what is required to be on the track to full funding.

• Title I: Title I Grants to local educational agencies are designed to help raise student achievement in the most impoverished communities. Schumer estimates that New York's share of the program would increase only $102 million over the FY04 level - from $1.253 billion in FY04 to $1.355 billion in FY 05. This increase, however, falls far short of fully funding the No Child Left Behind Act and fails to reach all students who are eligible for the program. Over 265,076 New York children will not be fully served by the President's plan. If the Administration were to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act, it would need to provide an increase of $727 million for New York State. This additional funding would also enable districts in New York help needy children by hiring up to 14,262 teachers to reduce class size and provide specialized instruction in math and reading aimed at helping these children meet state standards. New York City would see an increase of only $74.1 million from the President's FY05 budget.

Housing:The Administration's budget would cut several programs that would fund improvements to public housing:
• It would terminate the HOPE VI program that rehabilitates and restores severely distressed public housing projects. In the FY02 budget (the last time HOPE VI was funded because the deadline for demolition grants for FY 03 monies was the end of January 2004), HOPE VI projects in New York (two in Rochester and one in Utica) received $839,940,000. According to the President’s budget there would be no more funding available to rehabilitate distressed public housing New York.
• The Administration proposes to block grant vouchers to local and state public housing authorities (PHA). This proposal can potentially allow some flexibility in spending on vouchers, but flexibility is less helpful since the amount allocated to renewals has decreased by $1.5 billion.
• The Administration has continued to propose $0 for the Drug Elimination Program, which provides resources for public housing security and crime prevention. There has been a rise in crime since the last allocation of $35,000,000 in FY01.

Veterans Health Care: The President's budget provides $27.05 billion for veterans healthcare, a 1.9% or $508 million increase over last year. Given the high rate of inflation for medical care services, however, this falls short of the 4% or $1 billion increase required merely to maintain 2004 service levels. As a result, veterans health care will be short about $500 million and service could decline. Based on previous funding levels for New York's veterans heath care networks, the President's budget would shortchange New York veterans an estimated $25.6 million needed to simply maintain 2004 service levels. The Albany veterans health care network that covers upstate would be short an estimated $12.77 million and the Bronx network that covers New York City/Long Island would be short an estimated $13.82 million.

Amtrak: The Administration proposes $900 million for Amtrak for 2005, just half of the $1.8 billion Amtrak says it needs to stay afloat this year. Last year, after the Administration asked for $900 million for Amtrak, Congress acknowledged that this amount was too low, and ended up approving $1.218 billion. The administration has said it would support as much as $1.4 billion in future years if reforms it is pushing are made, such as splitting Amtrak into two separate companies so that the Northeast Corridor infrastructure is separated from long-distance train operations, and shifting control of train routes to the states. This would shift a great deal of the burden of maintaining the Northeast Corridor from the federal government to the states. As a result, long distance service would be drastically cut as states would now have to pay for losses trains incur, something the states do not have the money to do.

Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program: The budget includes an increase of approximately $6 million for New York's Ryan White AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) to help purchase drug treatments for those living with AIDS. This increase, however, covers only 10 percent of New York's projected FY 05 shortfall for the program which is estimated to be $55.5 million.

Essential Air Service: The Administration continues its efforts to gut the EAS program by proposing only $50 million to ensure that rural areas have access to air service, the same as last year, $33 million less than what the President proposed two years ago, and $53 million less than what Congress endorsed last year.

Port of New York/New Jersey Deepening Project: The Administration has proposed $103 million for the Army Corps' channel deepening projects in the Port of New York and New Jersey, $12 million less than what it proposed last year. After the Everglades restoration, the project is listed as the third most important priority for the Army Corp in the country.

Northern Border/Transportation Security: The President's 2005 budget provides a $1.258 billion increase from last year's for border and transportation security from $13.2 million to $14.4 million, but does not spell out which programs would benefit from the increase. Instead it only details which programs would receive cuts: The Transportation Security Administration would lose $84 million. Customs and border protection funding would receive a $141 million decrease. Meanwhile, the US VISIT program would increase by $12 million.

State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP): The Administration proposes eliminating SCAAP which provides federal assistance to State and localities that are incurring costs of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens who have been accused or convicted of State and local offenses. New York City has historically been one of the nation's top beneficiaries of this program, and is expected to receive more than $18 million in reimbursement from the SCAAP program in FY04.

HEAP: The Budget proposes a tiny increase of only $1.4 million for New York in the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP). HEAP is a block grant that gives low-income households financial help to offset the costs of heating and/or cooling their homes. Funds can also be used to make homes more energy efficient. There are over 752,000 households that receive HEAP funds in New York, and even if the entire increase is passed on to them, an individual family will see less than $2.00 more in help this year.

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