As fights over spending and the deficit continue in Washington, we can expect three ugly months ahead. I am becoming more and more confident that we will be successful in ensuring the sustainability of Community Action, but we must be careful as there will be many twists and turns and we still have a long way to go.
As Congress moves forward on their work to keep the country funded in the next fiscal year which begins on October 1, the partisan bickering continues. What was once expected to be a noncontroversial Continuing Resolution (CR) that would ensure the government was funded through November 18 (in order to give Congress more time to work on the FY2012 budget process), has now descended into a fight over offsets and spending on disaster relief for the natural disasters experienced in the past several months. Last night, the "Tea Party" faction in the Republican party voted down the House's version of the CR which that would have offset $1 billion in fiscal 2011 disaster aid by taking $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program (ATVM), arguing that they wanted to see more cuts. Democrats hail ATVM as a job creating program and also opposed the bill. It is unclear how things will move forward in the coming days, or what the CR will look like, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has vowed to include additional disaster aid that is not offset - clearly a problem for House Republicans. However, a Republican Senator very close to House Republican Leadership has told us that the CR will still move forward and that a government shutdown is not imminent.
On FY2012 appropriations front, we are in a good position. Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed their version of the Labor, Health and Human Services and Related Agencies (Labor H) spending bill for FY2012. The bill made many spending cuts, but as expected, Chairman Harkin protected CSBG. The bill funded CSBG at the FY2011 level of $678 million. HeadStart programs are increased by $380 million from FY2011 for a total of $7.5 billion. LIHEAP funding is $1.1 billion below FY2011 levels, bringing the FY2012 level to $3.6 billion. LIHEAP is still in play and Senate appropriators are waiting on White House leaders to give them an indication that they will support increased funding for the program. All in all, I am confident that we will utilize our bipartisan support to ensure that Community Action is funded in the coming fiscal year.
In the House, Labor H Subcommittee Chairman Denny Rehberg has indicated that he will also protect CSBG; however, two conservative Republicans on the Labor H Subcommittee are vowing not to vote for the bill at all. Combined with the Democratic Members who are also likely to oppose the measure, it means that the House version of Labor H is extremely unlikely to move as an individual spending bill. This puts the House in the position of having to pass an "omnibus" bill which would bundle several appropriations measures together into one piece of legislation. This is something House Republicans and especially the Tea Party have campaigned against.
We are also continuing to monitor the work of the so-called "Super-Committee" which is tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in budget cuts by the end of November. Most of the cuts will be focused on domestic discretionary spending, or 18 percent of the federal budget, as Republicans are emphatically opposing raising taxes and Democrat members are against entitlement reform without raising taxes on the rich. Despite this, I have a high degree of confidence in many of the Super Committee members to protect CSBG and Community Action, as most of the Committee's members recognize the importance of low income programs. The real concern is that the Super Committee will not reach an agreement, which would then trigger dramatic across the board cuts in 2013.
As you can see, the next several months in Congress will be difficult and unpredictable. Many conflicting factors will be in play including the influence of the Tea Party, 2012 election politics and President Obama's dwindling approval ratings. Regardless, none of this wrangling will enhance the public's perception of Congress. We will continue to navigate this uncertain environment and I am confident that Community Action will have a good result in the end.
I look forward to talking to you all at the Energy and CED Conference from October 23 / 24 - 27. We are going to focus in depth on how to navigate funding opportunities for Community Action, especially LIHEAP and Weatherization, in the increasingly difficult Washington political environment. I hope to see you there.