April 19, 2001 | Read Time: 5 minutes
By ELIZABETH SCHWINN
President Bush last week proposed $258-million in new grant programs for religious
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charities and other groups that provide social services.
The House and Senate will spend the next few months debating President Bush’s budget proposals as they draft their version of a spending plan for fiscal 2002, which begins October 1. The table below summarizes key items in the president’s budget that are of interest to charities and foundations. The plan is available online at http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget.
Among the proposals:
Grass-roots charity grants. Among the new efforts proposed by President Bush is a $67-million effort that would assist religious and local nonprofit groups that help children whose parents are in prison or on probation.
He also proposed a $64-million project to support faith-based and community groups that promote “responsible fatherhood” by helping fathers who are unemployed or have low incomes.
A proposed $33-million program would provide grants for local maternity group homes for teenage mothers and their children. In addition, Mr. Bush has sought $5-million for a pilot program that would enable federal inmates in four cities to participate in faith-based programs that prepare them for release from prison.
Mr. Bush also sought $89-million to establish a federal Compassion Capital Fund to help needy Americans. The $89-million is the first installment of $700-million Mr. Bush has proposed the government put into the fund over the next decade. The money would help community- and faith-based charities expand their programs or emulate model programs. The fund also would pay for research on “best practices” among charities.
Volunteerism. The President proposed a budget for the AmeriCorps national-service program that would support 50,000 participants in the program in the 2002 fiscal year, the same number serving this year. Mr. Bush’s budget proposes $237-million to pay for AmeriCorps awards in 2002, a $6.5-million increase over fiscal 2001. For the Corporation for National Service, the agency that oversees AmeriCorps and other service programs, the president sought $733.3-million, a $33-million decrease.
More elderly people could volunteer under the proposed increase in funds for the National Senior Service Corps, to $203-million, $14-million more than was allotted for the current fiscal year. Mr. Bush says he plans to increase annual spending on the Senior Corps so that it reaches $250-million by 2007. He says that would provide support for an additional 17,000 volunteers over five years.
In addition, the budget would provide $20-million to establish a Silver Scholarship program, which would encourage older people to volunteer for 500 hours as tutors and mentors in after-school programs in exchange for a $1,000 scholarship that could be deposited in an education savings account for use by the volunteers’ children, grandchildren, or other children.
The budget would provide $15-million for a new Veterans Mission for Youth program to make grants to community groups that connect veterans and military personnel with young people through mentor, tutoring, after-school, and other programs.
Arts, culture, and technology. Mr. Bush proposes to freeze spending for the National Endowment for the Humanities at $120.5-million, the same amount provided this year, and for the National Endowment for the Arts at $105-million. In addition, Mr. Bush proposes to spend $80-million next year on community technology centers, up from $65-million this year.
Social services and health. Mr. Bush sought $505-million for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program at the Department of Health and Human Services, up $200-million from the amount Congress provided for this year. Much of that money would go to support grants to charities. He also proposes to increase grants to local health-care centers — nonprofit groups that treat the uninsured — by $124-million, to $1.29-billion.
Tax breaks for charitable giving. Mr. Bush asked Congress to allow people who do not itemize deductions on their federal income-tax returns to write off a portion of their charitable gifts. In addition, he urged Congress to allow donors over age 59 to give money to charity directly from their retirement accounts without incurring taxes.
The president also sought to increase the annual limit on charitable deductions taken by corporations, from 10 percent to 15 percent of a company’s taxable income.
| Spending in fiscal 2001 | Proposed for fiscal 2002 | |
| Arts and Culture | ||
| Corporation for Public Broadcasting1 | $360,000,000 | $370,000,000 |
| Historic preservation | $79,000,000 | $37,055,000 |
| Institute of Museum and Library Services | $232,000,000 | $192,977,242 |
| National Endowment for the Arts | $105,000,000 | $105,219,000 |
| National Endowment for the Humanities | $120,000,000 | $120,504,000 |
| National Gallery of Art | $76,000,000 | $80,449,000 |
| Smithsonian Institution | $456,000,000 | $494,100,000 |
| Spending in fiscal 2001 | Proposed for fiscal 2002 | |
| Community Development and Housing | ||
| Community Development Block Grants | $5,113,000,000 | $4,801,993,000 |
| Grants to help low-income home buyers | $1,800,000,000 | $1,796,040,000 |
| Homelessness assistance grants | $1,023,000,000 | $1,022,745,000 |
| Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS | $257,000,000 | $277,432,000 |
| Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program2 | $1,400,000,000 | $1,400,000,000 |
| Public Housing Operating Fund | $3,242,000,000 | $3,384,868,000 |
| Spending in fiscal 2001 | Proposed for fiscal 2002 | |
| Education and Job Training | ||
| Adult education | $558,000,000 | $570,000,000 |
| College-student financial aid | $10,674,000,000 | $11,674,000,000 |
| Education for the handicapped | $7,440,000,000 | $8,425,595,000 |
| Elementary and secondary education for poor children | $8,979,000,000 | $6,788,000,000 |
| Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education | $151,000,000 | $51,000,000 |
| Head Start | $6,200,000,000 | $6,324,812,000 |
| Job training and employment services | $5,854,000,000 | $7,809,000,000 |
| Vocational education | $1,238,000,000 | $1,924,000,000 |
| Spending in fiscal 2001 | Proposed for fiscal 2002 | |
| Health | ||
| AIDS prevention and treatment | $1,800,000,000 | $1,800,000,000 |
| Community Service Block Grants | $600,000,000 | $600,000,000 |
| Grants to local health-care centers | $1,164,000,000 | $1,288,000,000 |
| Family planning | $254,000,000 | $254,000,000 |
| Health services for American Indians | $3,073,000,000 | $3,223,000,000 |
| Individual Development Accounts (savings plans for the poor) | $25,000,000 | $25,000,000 |
| Maternal and Child Health Services | $714,000,000 | $709,000,000 |
| Maternity group homes | 0 | $33,000,000 |
| Medicaid | $128,853,000,000 | $143,423,000,000 |
| Medicare | $216,000,000,000 | $226,400,000,000 |
| Promoting Safe and Stable Families | $305,000,000 | $505,000,000 |
| Spending in fiscal 2001 | Proposed for fiscal 2002 | |
| National Service | ||
| Corporation for National Service: | $766,300,000 | $733,300,000 |
| AmeriCorps awards | $230,500,000 | $237,000,000 |
| AmeriCorps program administration | $31,000,000 | $31,000,000 |
| Learn and Serve America | $43,000,000 | $43,000,000 |
| National Civilian Community Corps | $22,000,000 | $21,000,000 |
| National Senior Service Corps | $189,000,000 | $203,000,000 |
| National Service Trust | $70,000,000 | $10,000,000 |
| Points of Light Foundation | $10,000,000 | $10,000,000 |
| Silver Scholarships | 0 | $20,000,000 |
| Veterans Mission for Youth | 0 | $15,000,000 |
| VISTA | $83,000,000 | $82,000,000 |
| Peace Corps | $272,000,000 | $283,000,000 |
| Spending in fiscal 2001 | Proposed for fiscal 2002 | |
| Scientific Research | ||
| National Institutes of Health | $20,458,000,000 | $23,209,000,000 |
| National Science Foundation | $4,414,000,000 | $4,470,000,000 |
| Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration | $2,957,000,000 | $3,029,000,000 |
| Spending in fiscal 2001 | Proposed for fiscal 2002 | |
| Social Services | ||
| Aging | $1,103,000,000 | $1,098,000,000 |
| Child-Care Block Grants | $2,000,000,000 | $2,200,000,000 |
| Child Nutrition | $9,623,000,000 | $10,092,000,000 |
| Child-welfare and child-abuse services | $469,000,000 | $453,000,000 |
| Commodity Supplemental Food Program | $100,000,000 | $95,000,000 |
| Compassion Capital Fund | 0 | $89,000,000 |
| Developmental disabilities | $134,000,000 | $134,000,000 |
| Domestic-violence prevention grants | $210,000,000 | $184,537,000 |
| Drug-abuse–prevention grants to help people in low-cost housing | $309,000,000 | 0 |
| Education vouchers for foster children | 0 | $60,000,000 |
| Faith-based program for prison inmates | 0 | $5,000,000 |
| Food Stamps | $20,326,000,000 | $22,204,000,000 |
| Foster care and adoption | $6,401,000,000 | $6,622,000,000 |
| Juvenile justice | $292,000,000 | $291,000,000 |
| Legal Services Corporation | $329,000,000 | $329,300,000 |
| Mentoring children of prisoners | 0 | $67,000,000 |
| Nutrition Program for the Elderly | $151,000,000 | $150,000,000 |
| Refugee and Entrant Assistance | $433,000,000 | $445,000,000 |
| Responsible fatherhood initiative | 0 | $64,000,000 |
| Runaways and homeless youth | $48,000,000 | $48,000,000 |
| Social Services Block Grants | $1,725,000,000 | $1,700,000,000 |
| Soup Kitchens, Food Banks, and Emergency Food Assistance Program | $145,000,000 | $140,000,000 |
| Temporary Assistance for Needy Families | $16,689,000,000 | $16,679,000,000 |
| 1. Figures shown are for fiscal 2003 and 2004 because money is appropriated two years in advance. | ||
| 2. Figures shown are for fiscal 2002 and 2003 because money is appropriated one year in advance. | ||
