CareLink Staff

For child care, the bottom line is another year of frozen funding. And due to inflation, any program’s funding that is frozen would amount to a reduction in real dollars.

Some of the rumors in Washington are that Congress may wait to enact any new spending bills until after a new president is elected next year, in the hopes the next president will be more in line with this Congress’ agenda. Stick with Capitol Connection, and don’t forget to stay in contact with your elected officials and their staff to keep child care on their radar screen.

Programs of Special Interest for Child Care
Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) – The President proposes frozen funding for the seventh year in a row for CCDBG. As you can see here, the President’s own budget estimates that 200,000 fewer children will receive child care assistance over the next two years compared to 2007. (The President’s budget estimates 2.7 million children receive child care through all federal child care sources—CCDBG, TANF, and Title XX— in 2007 and if his budget recommendations are followed over the next several years, then 2.5 million children would receive child care help by 2009.) In the budget, CCDBG earmarks are preserved and frozen at last year’s level as well ($18.4 million for child care resource & referral and school-aged care; $263.1 million for quality activities, of which $96.4 million would for infants and toddlers, and $9.6 million would be for child care research). We are disappointed that the President deleted the specific earmark for Child Care Aware® in this budget, although the set-aside for the hotline is preserved.

Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) – Funding for SSBG is currently about $1.7 billion. The President proposed $1.2 billion for FY2009, a cut of $500 million. Currently, 41 states use SSBG funds to help meet the demand for child care assistance. Six states (Delaware, Tennessee, Connecticut, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina) spend more than 25 percent of their SSBG funding for child care purposes. Because SSBG is a block grant to states, this is not a direct cut in child care funding because states have a great deal of flexibility in how much money to allocate for any social service activity. However, because SSBG funding would be cut by nearly one-third, it is conceivable that funds for child care could be reduced.

Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) – CSBG is currently funded at about $650 million. The President’s budget would terminate the program. A large portion of CSBG agencies either directly operate or house child care and Head Start programs, which could directly affect the availability of these programs.

Head Start – Head Start received a modest increase, far below the level needed to keep pace with inflation so that the same number of children can participate in the program.

Proposed Program Terminations – In addition to CSBG, the President would terminate many early learning programs, including Even Start family literacy grants, Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Grants, Reading is Fundamental (RIF), and Parental Information & Resource Centers. Programs already stretched thin would receive slight cuts such as IDEA preschool grants and IDEA infant and toddler funding.

Steps to Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations
Congress needs to start preparing for FY09, which begins on October 1, 2008. Generally, this is how Congress prepares its Appropriations bills:

1. The President releases his proposed budget.
2. Committees in the House of Representatives and Senate hold hearings on the President’s proposals and listen to testimony about the effectiveness of some of the programs in question, including the rationale, state and local viewpoints, and the potential impact of the program cut/increase.
3. The House and Senate Budget Committees then craft their own Budget Resolution, which sets a ceiling for spending in a very broad sense. The budget resolution does not require the President’s signature, nor does it become law. The Budget Resolution is a guideline for Congressional Appropriators as they determine specific dollar amounts for each program. After the House and the Senate pass their Budget Resolutions, Members from each chamber are named to a joint House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences. Both chambers then consider and pass the same Budget Resolution so they can continue their funding process and work within the same parameters during the Appropriations process.
4. The Appropriation Committees and subcommittees then begin to meet and hold hearings in order to draft a spending bill for the next fiscal year for all programs within each jurisdiction. Per the Constitution, all Appropriations bills are started in the House of Representatives. Once the House passes an Appropriations bill, it is sent to the Senate for its amendments and approval.
5. After the House and the Senate both pass their spending bills, appointed Members come together again in a joint House-Senate conference committee to hammer out the differences.
6. The final Appropriations bill needs to be voted on in both the House and the Senate, and then the bill is sent to the President for his signature.

If this process does not happen by the start of FY09, the Congress will pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) which will continue funding government programs until the Appropriations process is complete.

State Budget Shortfalls – We Want to Hear from You
The Center on Budget and Policy

Priorities estimates that more than half of the states will have budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2009. Some states will remedy this by cutting spending. NACCRRA is monitoring the situation as information becomes available for different states. We would be interested to know what you are hearing as states prepare budget plans- what is the impact on child care? Please email marybeth.salomone@naccrra.org

Other News:
CBPP Report on the President’s Fiscal Year 2009 Budget
The Center on Budget and Public Policy released comprehensive report about the President’s Budget for FY 2009. According to the report, “The budget would freeze funding for child care assistance for low-income families for the seventh consecutive year. After adjusting for inflation, child care funding has already fallen by almost 17 percent since 2002. (Between 2002 and 2006, the last year for which data are available, the number of low-income children grew by more than 8 percent.)”

Tax Resources for Families
The National Women’s Law Center has an easy-to-use web page dedicated to resources available for claiming family tax credits for state and federal taxes that you can use as you work with families in your community.