Senator Clinton Highlights Senate Budget Resolution Strengths and Weaknesses

Senator Clinton Highlights Senate Budget Resolution Strengths and Weaknesses

Citing her continued grave concern about the devastating impact that the President's budget cuts will have on New York, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) today vowed to continue to build upon some of the progress that was made in the Senate Budget Resolution where some of the Bush Administration's most egregious cuts were restored. Senator Clinton worked with her colleagues throughout the week to beat back some of the Administration's cuts to critical health, education and community development programs.

"Make no mistake about it, the President's budget is an attack on working families and we must all continue to fight against it. While I am pleased that we were able to restore some of the cuts to critical programs like Medicaid, I remain deeply troubled by attempts to dismantle other vital programs. I am particularly disturbed by this Administration's determination to shut down Amtrak and hope that other state and local leaders will come to this vital service's side as well," Senator Clinton said.

Several major initiatives that Senator Clinton and her colleagues succeeded in including in the final budget resolution are as follows:

• Medicaid — Senator Clinton co-sponsored an amendment, along with Senators Smith (OR) and Bingaman (NM), that passed in the final resolution to restore a $15 billion cut in Medicaid nationally, $2 billion for New York. The amendment also would create a bipartisan commission to recommend solutions to strengthen and reform Medicaid.

• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program —This amendment will provide $2.07 billion in funding to restore the CDBG program and other critical aid programs for towns and cities that faced elimination under the President's Budget.

• Education — Senator Clinton co-sponsored an education amendment that provides $773.7 million to restore the President's cuts to GEAR UP and TRIO, including $306.5 million for GEAR UP and $467.2 million for TRIO (Upward Bound, $312.556 million; Talent Search, $144.887 million; and other TRIO cut, $9.710 million). This amendment restores college access services to over 1.8 million low-income and first-generation middle and high school students, including nearly 40,000 New York students.

• Flu Vaccine Shortage Prevention — The Senate adopted the Clinton/Gregg (NH) amendment that will help prevent future flu vaccine shortages and strengthen flu tracking and response efforts.

• Comparative Effectiveness -- Senator Clinton sponsored an amendment that was included in the budget resolution that will support comparative effectiveness research that compares the safety and effectiveness of new prescription drugs, medical treatments and devices to other similar treatments for the same illnesses and medical conditions, allowing patients and health care providers to make more informed decisions about their medical care. In addition to enhancing safety, comparative effectiveness studies improve quality and reduce costs that come from prescribing a drug or other medical procedure that may be more expensive and no more effective than other similar options, and could have negative health consequences that require additional treatment, hospitalizations, or other medical interventions that drive up costs.

Senator Clinton said, "It was a tough fight, but, ultimately, a majority of my colleagues joined me in making sure Medicaid, educational programs and other vital initiatives were included in the final passage of fiscal year 2006 Budget Resolution. We now must continue to fight for these programs in conference. Unfortunately there are also still many programs that the President has slashed or under-funded and I hope that my Republican colleagues will work with us to address some of these misplaced priorities."

Major amendments that were defeated by Senate Republicans and not included in the final budget resolution that Senator Clinton is committed to fighting for include:

• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) — President Bush sharply reduced LIHEAP funding in his FY '06 budget with New York losing more than $28 million from last year's funding. Senator Clinton strongly supported an amendment that would restore those cuts, but it was defeated by the Republican majority.

• COPS Program — Under Bush's budget proposal, this program is reduced from $379 million to $118 million nationally. Additionally, absolutely no funding is proposed for the COPS Universal Hiring Program, the COPS MORE program, COPS in Schools program, or the COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program. Senator Clinton cosponsored an amendment offered by the Senate Democrats that would have fully restored funding for this successful program, but was defeated.

• Veterans Healthcare — Under the President's proposal, the VA system is under-funded by nearly $2.8 billion dollars. The Republican Senate defeated an amendment co-sponsored by Senator Clinton that would have restored the funding and would have paid for this increased funding through closing corporate tax loopholes.

"LIHEAP and COPS are two major programs that are important to New Yorkers and I will continue to fight for federal funding," Senator Clinton said. "Also, I am appalled that Congress would turn its back to our Veterans who risked their lives to serve our country. I will work to be sure more money is allocated to VA Healthcare."

http://clinton.senate.gov/~clinton/news/2005/2005318B14.html