President's FY 2005 Budget Request Remains the Same

The Bush Administration's FY 2005 budget contains $329 million for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the same amount proposed by the president in the three previous years. The Corporation received $335.4 million in FY 2004 funding and $336.6 million in FY 2003.

The $2.4 trillion FY 2005 proposed budget includes a 10 percent spending increase for homeland security and a 7 percent increase for defense, while holding all other appropriated programs to an increase of 0.5 percent. The president proposed spending cuts in seven of 15 Cabinet departments. In a February 2 article in CQ Today News entitled "Legal Services Corporation: No Budget Increase Sought," writer David Nather concludes that "...In a year of tight budgets for everything except defense and homeland security, however, the agency may have scored a minor victory just by avoiding a cut."

The budget encountered initial skepticism by the chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees about the likelihood of its eventual passage. House Chair C. W. Bill Young, R-FL, indicated that the President’s initiatives "will have to compete with proven programs and traditional congressional priorities." Senate Chair Ted Stevens, R-AK, predicted "that Congress may not clear any of the 10 non-defense, non-homeland security appending bills before Election Day."

The nation's governors are likely to voice opposition to the proposed plan as well. According to a second February 2 article in CQ Today, "cash-strapped states…would be hit with a freeze in federal grants, as opposed to the 8 per cent increase provided this year."