Health and Human-Services Charities Face Mixed Prospects in Obama’s Budget Proposal

President Obama has proposed a small increase in spending on health and human services in his 2013 budget, but the results for individual programs are mixed.

The budgets for community health centers and Head Start would grow under the president’s proposal, but the Community Services Block Grant program, which provides money for antipoverty projects, would face a big cut.

The president has proposed a budget of $76.4-billion for discretionary programs operated by the Department of Health and Human Services—that is, for programs that are not mandatory, unlike Social Security and Medicare—which is just $300-million more than this year’s spending.

Details of some specific proposals that affect nonprofit groups follow:

Child-Care and Development Block Grants. $2.6 billion, up from $2.3-billion, for grants to states to help pay for child care for low-income parents.

Community Health Centers. $3.1-billion, up from $2.8-billion, for nonprofits that provide primary health care to low-income people. That includes a $1.5-billion injection from the new health-care law.

Community Services Block Grants. $350-million, a steep cut from $677-million this year. The program provides money to more than 1,000 community-action groups across the country that manage antipoverty projects. The president also said the grants, which are now awarded to states according to a formula based on the number of people in poverty, should be awarded competitively, adding that the current structure “does too little to hold these agencies accountable for outcomes.”

Mr. Obama proposed a similar cut last year, but the program’s supporters waged a successful lobbying campaign to persuade Congress to preserve most of its budget.

Head Start and Early Head Start. $8.05-billion, an increase of $85-million for the early-learning programs.

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. $3.02-billion, down from $3.4-billion, for the program to help low-income families pay their heating and cooling bills. President Obama tried to cut the program even more last year, to $2.6-billion, but says he increased the number this year because of the rising cost of fuel oil.

Social-Services Block Grants. $1.8-billion, the same as this year for this program, which provides grants to states to help pay for social services.