· Supporting civil society programs as a critical component in the prevention and resolution of violent conflict.
The terrorist attacks of September 11th understandably have left many Americans feeling less secure and more fearful of attack at home and abroad. We have no greater responsibility in Congress than to ensure the security of the American people, but we meet that solemn duty in a smarter, more cost-effective way. The Progressive Caucus budget will enable us to do just that. While it may often be frustrating and time-consuming to engage in hard-nosed negotiations with our potential adversaries, doing so will prove far less costly and will make the world more peaceful than aggressive unilateralism.
Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (+$1 billion):It is also in our national security interests for America to do more to meet the world’s growing humanitarian crises. Let me cite just one example from our Progressive Caucus budget.
The Global Fund has achieved significant success in the last five years since it became operational. As of December 2006, 770,000 people are now on lifesaving AIDS treatment, 2 million people have been treated for TB and 18 million bed nets have been distributed to protect families against malaria. As a result, since its creation 1.5 million lives have been saved worldwide. Historically, the U.S. has provided nearly one-third of all funding to the Global Fund and it is critically important to maintain our strong support as we work to turn the tide against these pandemics. This increase in funding is necessary to help pay for a new round of grant funding, Phase II of existing grants, and to support the longer term renewal of grants that have completed their initial five year funding period.
These grants are given to local governments to promote community and economic development. Community development block grants are also vital to helping our local communities (including those devastated by Hurricane Katrina) meet their needs for affordable housing including homeownership assistance, construction of housing, rehabilitation of existing housing, and energy efficiency improvements. While the President has repeated targeted this program for cuts, the Progressive Caucus Budget increases funding for this program to $4.1 billion in FY08.
Education, training, employment, and social services (500) Fully Fund Title I of No Child Left Behind.· No Child Left Behind has been under-funded by $70 billion since it was enacted. It is time that we make a serious commitment to the children of this nation and fully fund the most comprehensive educational policy. The CPC Budget Alternative fully funds Title I which allows an additional 4.5 million children to receive needed services. These services are essential to closing achievement gaps. In the 2005-06 school year, almost 11,000 public schools had already failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for two or more years under NCLB provisions, and thus faced federal sanctions. These schools and the students they serve will face even greater challenges in the coming year as testing requirements go into full effect. If a school doesn’t meet AYP, we need to help them, not deliver punitive measures. Schools need to be given flexibility and encouragement if they don’t meet AYP. In addition, we need to put more money into designing the best possible quality tests. If we are going to put all of our faith in the tests to be indicators of achievement, those tests need to be the best they can be. Meeting the Federal Governments promise to fund IDEA · Over six million children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21 receive special education services. Recognizing the importance of federal assistance in helping states and schools fund special education services, the federal government has pledged to fund 40 percent of the average nationwide per pupil expenditure to help meet the costs of educating students with disabilities. Yet, despite significant progress in the last few years, actual federal expenditures provide only 18 percent, far short of this goal. That’s why the CPC Budget fully funds our commitment to helping disabled children.· The lack of sufficient funding to meet the needs of students with disabilities also places considerable strain on the entire school budget, as local officials are forced to increase tax revenue or cut other critical programs to provide mandated IDEA services. Inadequate special education funding impacts services to all students. Efforts to improve student achievement through implementation of higher standards, and other discretionary educational reforms, often must take a back seat to the provision of mandatory IDEA services. This is particularly true as states face mounting budget pressures and financial shortfalls, necessitating cuts in discretionary services. Meeting the federal commitment to fully fund IDEA would relieve this pressure on school districts and free up local funds for other vital education services.
Restoring cuts to job training programsThe Progressive Caucus Budget increases funding for job training to the FY02 approved level (an increase of $1.6 billion per year), which is the last year of effective funding before massive cuts began. Returning funding to the FY02 level is a down-payment on increasing our commitment to having the best trained, strongest, and most competitive workforce in the world. Increased globalization has cost many Americans the good paying jobs of their fathers. We need the ability to retrain these workers to accommodate a changing economic base and ensure that working Americans are able to adjust.
Health (550) SCHIPAs a down payment on bringing healthcare to all Americans, the Progressive Caucus budget moves to cover all children who are eligible under the SCHIP program. Currently, the program is grossly under funded and leaving needy children with health care. This is no way for the wealthiest nation in the world to treat its neediest and most vulnerable citizens. That is why the Progressive Caucus budget invests $75 billion over the next five years and $230 billion in the next ten years in SCHIP.
Funding for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment in America:According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, racial and ethnic minorities represent 71% of new AIDS cases and 64% of Americans living with AIDS. African Americans account for 50% of new AIDS cases, although only 12% of the population is black. Hispanics account for 19% of new AIDS cases, although only 14% of the population is Hispanic. Despite these trends, funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative has remained relatively flat funded over the last seven years at approximately $400 million. Additional funding will allow for increased technical assistance, capacity building, and targeted outreach in minority communities.The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act makes federal funds available to metropolitan areas and states to provide a number of health care services for AIDS patients including medical care, drug treatments, dental care, home health care, and outpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment, and also directly funds capacity building and outreach activities for community based organizations. Each year the CDC estimates that another 40,000 people become infected with HIV/AIDS. With the re-authorization of the CARE Act at the end of last year, increased funding is necessary to help provide prevention/treatment/care services in localities with emerging HIV epidemics that have been added to the CARE Act, while maintaining ongoing support for areas with mature HIV epidemics. This funding will also support increased drug treatment through the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (Title II of the CARE Act), by providing anti-retroviral therapy to an additional 17,663 clients who will be able to access services through ADAP.
The CDC funds critical surveillance and prevention programs for a range of infectious diseases. Increased funding is necessary to support prevention efforts around HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD's). HIV prevention funding at the CDC has faced budget cuts totaling almost $50 million over the past four years. In those same four years 160,000 people have become infected with HIV as the number of annual new infections in the United States has steadily remained at 40,000. Funding is also necessary to combat the rise of a new extremely-drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis (XDR-TB) which has appeared as a result of HIV-TB coinfection and poor adherence to TB treatments. XDR-TB has just recently been identified by the World Health Organization in over 28 countries worldwide including the United States. Because of the lack of an effective treatment regimen and the high mortality rate of individuals diagnosed with XDR-TB, it is critical that we scale up funding for surveillance and prevention to stop this disease from spreading. Income security (600)Sec. 8 HousingDecent and affordable housing should be a basic right. The ability to feel safe, sheltered from the elements, and enjoy your own privacy is of immense importance. Because of this, the CPC budget invests and additional $1.6 billion dollars a year in the Section 8 program to provide housing for those who need it (including Hurricane Katrina victims.) This amount would allow for the cost of renewing all vouchers in use this year, plus funding for 100,000 new "incremental" vouchers to address unmet need & long waiting lists.
Food Stamps and Hunger PreventionMore than ten years after enactment of the 1996 law, the resulting cuts in food stamp benefits contained in that law continue to deepen with each passing year and to affect most food stamp households, including most of the working poor and the elderly poor. Each year, food stamp households are able to purchase less food than the year before. The Progressive Caucus budget will enable the standard deduction to rise to $188 in 2008 and adjust it annually thereafter for inflation, thus restoring the standard deduction fully to its pre-1996 level for all household sizes (including Hurricane Katrina victims.) A typical household of three or fewer members will see its benefits increase by about $24 a month. Veterans’ benefits and services (700) Keeping our promisesThe Progressive Caucus budget makes veterans’ health care a new federal entitlement. It will require the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to make mandatory appropriations for VA health care based upon the following formula: the amount of funds available for VA medical care in FY2008 would equal 130% of the total obligations made by the VA for medical care programs in FY2005. The amounts in succeeding years would be adjusted for medical inflation and growth in the number of veterans enrolled in VA’s health care system and other non-veterans eligible for care from the VA. For the first time in our nation’s history, every one of our veterans returning from service in Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere and every other U.S. veteran of other conflicts will have the peace of mind of knowing that guaranteed funding for his/her health care (including mental health benefits) will be available.
General Government (800) Election reform, including but not limited to HAVA improvementsThe Progressive Caucus budget would provide an additional $522 million yearly for FY2008-2012 for the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to assist each state in paying for implementation of voter verification systems, improvement of security measures, related security consultation services, and improved election services/administration. $20 million will be provided yearly for FY20013-2017 for additional improvements to election administration and procedures.
Revenue Restoring fairness to the Tax CodeThe Progressive Caucus budget will restore substantial progressivity to the federal tax code. It will rescind all of the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the top 1 % of households earning an average of more than $1 million/year. Tax breaks for the top 1% that would be rolled back include:
· Restoring top income tax bracket to 39.6%, raising at least $96 billion;
· Repealing capital gains and dividend tax breaks, raising at least $74.4 billion;
· Rolling back the estate tax break, raising at least $74.2 billion; and
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