ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 13, Number 33
May 20, 2004

In This Issue: BUDGET UPDATE: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES FY 2005 BUDGET; FACES UPHILL BATTLE IN THE SENATE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES FY 2005 BUDGET

Yesterday, the House of Representatives narrowly passed its $2.4 trillion fiscal year 2005 budget resolution (S.Con.Res. 95), by a 216-213 vote. Democrats objected that the one-year budget plan would do little to solve the nation's long-term fiscal problems and expected $400 billion-plus FY 2004 deficit.  

The congressional budget resolution is a blueprint that outlines Congress's spending priorities for the year and dictates the amount of spending the Appropriations Committee is allowed to allocate for specific departments and programs like LSTA and Improving Literacy Through School Libraries.

Despite its passage in the House of Representatives, the FY 2005 budget resolution faces an uphill battle in the Senate.  Republican moderates in the Senate who voted in March to impose tough "pay-as-you-go" restrictions on tax cuts as well as entitlement spending -- requiring any tax cuts or spending increases to be offset -- firmed up their opposition to the one-year budget conference agreement and its exemption for $27.5 billion in tax cuts from the pay/go rule.

While there are no specific funding levels included in the FY 2005 budget resolution, as was the case in the FY 2004 budget resolution, the conference report provides Education and Related programs with a discretionary spending total of $81 billion in budget authority.  The increase for discretionary budget authority over FY 04 is $2.9 billion or a 3.7% increase.

In addition to outlining spending for the coming year, the budget resolution also calls for a $690 billion increase in the nation's debt limit to about $8.1 trillion.  The United States is expected to exceed the current debt limit of $7.4 trillion in the coming months.

As a result of the passage of the budget in the House yesterday, the House  Appropriations Committee announced that it is moving forward with an overall FY 2005 discretionary spending target of $821 billion -- $2 billion less than the White House request.  At this level, the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriation Subcommittee, where most federal library programs are funded, will have about $142.5 billion to work with, slightly up from the FY 2004 enacted level of about $139 billion, after an 0.59 percent across-the-board cut.


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