July 2008
In This Issue
Fiscal Year 2009 Federal Budget
Congressional Democrats had planned to finalize all FY 2009 appropriations bills prior to the
August recess, but that plan has been scrapped. The House Appropriations Committee halted all work
on its FY 2009 bills on June 26 when Chairman David Obey (D-WI) grew angry when Republicans attempted
to bring up an amendment to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling at a markup of the
Labor-HHS-Education bill. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), chair of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, postponed a scheduled July 24 markup of the Interior appropriations bill
when Republicans again threatened to raise the offshore drilling debate, although he has vowed to
continue pushing Senate leaders to bring appropriations bills to the floor for a vote.
As President Bush has threatened to veto the appropriations bills because the Democrats propose to
spend $24.5 billion more than the $991.6 billion he requested, it is unlikely that any of the
appropriations bills, other than Defense, will reach the floor of either
chamber for a vote. As in past years, the measures to fund the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs
should be signed into law by September 30, but nothing else. Congressional leaders had planned to
attach a continuing resolution to the Defense bill to maintain government funding at FY 2008 levels
until after the new President takes office in 2009, but new threats from the Republicans to attach
the expansion of oil drilling to the continuing resolution could lead to a government shut-down on October 1.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The House Subcommittee marked up its FY 2009 appropriation for HUD on June 20, but the full
committee markup has not been scheduled; limited information is available about amounts recommended
by the House for specific programs in its bill. The full Senate Committee approved its version of
the bill on July 10.
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG): The Senate Committee recommends funding
at $3.889 billion, $23 million above FY 2008. The House Subcommittee recommends increasing the amount
to $4 billion, a $134 million increase over FY 2008.
Housing Counseling: The Senate Committee provides $65 million for Housing Counseling.
The House Subcommittee recommends funding at $75 million. The FY 2008 funding level for Housing
Counseling has been $50 million.
Fair Housing Initiatives Programs: The Senate Committee provides $29 million for FHIP,
a $5 million increase over FY 2008.
Homeless Assistance Programs: The Senate Committee recommends an appropriation of
$1.667 billion for FY 2009. The House Subcommittee recommends funding homeless
programs at $1.69 billion, an increase of more than $100 million above the enacted level for FY 2008.
Housing for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA): The Senate Committee recommends an
appropriation of $315 million.
Rural Housing and Economic Development: The Senate Committee recommends an appropriation of
$30 million.
- Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW)
Both the full House and Senate Committees passed their Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations
bills in June. The Senate recommends $415 million in total funding for OVW.
The House recommends $435 million for in total funding for OVW,
a $35 million increase over FY 2008, but no information is available about amounts recommended
by the House for specific OVW programs in its bill.
STOP Violence Against Women Grant Program: The Senate Committee recommends funding at $185
million, a small increase over the FY 2008 level.
Legal Assistance for Victims (LAV) Grant Program: The Senate Committee would increase funding
to $42 million, $5 million more than the FY 2008 level.
Rural Domestic Violence Program: The Senate recommends increasing funding to $42 million,
a $1.5 million increase from the FY 2008 level.
Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies: The Senate Committee includes $59 million for the program.
- Department of Health and Human Services
The full Senate Appropriations Committee passed its Labor-HHS-Education bill on June 26, but the House
Committee suspended action on its bill the same day when Republicans attempted
to bring up an amendment to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling at the markup.
Community Services Block Grant (CSBG): The Senate Committee recommends
$653,800,000 for CSBG, the same funding level as for FY 2008.
Administration on Aging (AoA): The Senate Committee recommends $361 million for supportive services,
a $10 million increase from FY 2008
Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI): The Senate Committee recommends
almost $36 million, $1 million more than FY 2008.
Ryan White AIDS Act: The Senate Committee provides $2.17 billion total, with
$1.2 billion for comprehensive care programs, a $14 million increase over FY 2008.
Federal Funding Opportunities
- Continuum of Care (CoC) Homeless Assistance Grants
http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/nofa08/cocgrp.cfm
Deadline: The application deadline will be based on the date when the electronic application
is made available to the public.
These grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) seek to reduce the incidence
of homelessness in communities by assisting homeless individuals and families to move to
self-sufficiency and permanent housing. Applicants that sustain current successful interventions and
advance the goal of ending chronic homelessness will be scored higher.
Applicants are now required to apply electronically through HUD's e-snaps system. Although the
Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)
has been released, the new e-snaps electronic application system is not yet available to receive
applications. HUD will notify the public via the Homeless Assistance listserv and an additional
Federal Register Notice when the application is available.
Online training for e-snaps is available now at
http://esnaps.hudhre.info/training/.
- HIV Emergency Relief Project Grants, Part A
https://grants.hrsa.gov/webExternal/FundingOppDetails.asp
Deadline: September 29, 2008
Part A of the Ryan White CARE Act authorizes grants for outpatient and ambulatory health and support
services to Eligible Metropolitan Areas (EMAs) and transitional Grant Areas.
Approximately $620 million is available for 56 awards. Of the funding, 50 percent is awarded
according to a formula based on the estimated number of individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the EMAs.
The remaining funds are awarded as discretionary supplemental grants based on additional needs by
the EMA.
These grants fund
approximately 25 categories of medical and other health and social support services, including legal services,
for individuals with HIV/AIDS in EMAs. The program requires that grantees funded under Part A use
at least 75 percent of grant funds for core medical services that are needed in the service area.
These services are intended primarily for low income/under-insured people living with HIV/AIDS.
HHS Seeks Comments on Proposed Reporting System for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
Comment Deadline: August 29, 2008
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-15470.pdf
On July 8, 2008, HHS published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comments on
its plans to use a new Client Level Data Reporting System for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.
Created in 2008 by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees Ryan White
funding, the new system is designed to collect information from grantees, as well as their
subcontracted service providers, funded under Parts A, B, C, D, and F of the program. The reporting
system will consist of two online data forms, the Grantee Information Form and the Service Provider
Form. A data file containing the client level data elements will be submitted with the two online
data forms on a semi-annual basis.
At the moment, the HIV/AIDS Bureau requires that all Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program-funded grantees
and their contracted service providers report aggregate data annually using the Ryan White Data
Report. Agencies report data related to the service provider, clients, service visits provided/
clients served, client demographics, and health insurance payments. However, the bureau claims
major limitations with aggregate data, including the inability to use the data to
assess quality of care or to determine how efficiently program funds are being used. The new system
will address these limitations by incorporating unique and encrypted client identifiers that will
be used to track individuals served through the program in a confidential way.
Comments can be e-mailed to paperwork@hrsa.gov or
mailed to the HRSA Reports Clearance Officer,
Room 10–33, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857.
Profile of America's Children Available Online
Kids Count 2008 Data Book
The Annie E. Casey Foundation's 19th annual Kids Count Data Book is a national and state-by-state
profile of the well-being of America's children that provides data on the economic, health,
education and social conditions of America's children and families. Information from the Data Book
is now available in an easy-to-use online database, which allows users to generate custom graphs,
maps, ranked lists and state-by-state profiles, or download the entire data set as delimited
text files.
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