President Bill Clinton signed into law on November 29 an omnibus spending bill which provides $390 billion to keep seven federal departments and numerous federal programs operating through September 30, 2000. In all, the measure provides funding for 5 of the 13 regular appropriations bills and includes increased funding for many Conference priorities. The other 8 bills were signed into law earlier as separate legislation.

Although numerous attempts were made to reduce funding for many key city priorities, throughout the budget process the President insisted on adequate funding to support his goal of hiring 100,000 teachers to reduce classroom size over the next six years, more funds to support hiring an additional police officers to fight crime, and more funds for summer youth jobs. In the end the, President convinced Congress to add more than $5 billion in the final appropriations bills to support his priorities.

Among these priorities, a total of $1.3 billion was included for hiring new teachers, however the President gave in to Republican leaders demands to increase the amount that local school officials may use for other purposes (such as teacher training and professional development) from 15 percent to 25 percent. In other areas a total of $454 million was included for after school programs, which is more than twice the $200 million available for last year; $595 million in new funds and $318 million in unobligated funds were combined to provide a total of $913 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program; and $523 million was included for Local Law Enforcement Block Grants.

These were all top legislative priorities of the Conference this year. In a December 1 letter to President Clinton, Conference President and Denver Mayor Wellington Webb thanked the president for "obtaining adequate funds for improving education, fighting crime and many other critical priorities." Mayor Webb also commended the President for speaking out against congressional proposals earlier in the process that would have required drastic cuts in many of these programs.

Agreement was reached on the omnibus spending bill after the President vetoed four (and threaten to veto a fifth) appropriations bills to force Republican leaders to increase funds for his priority programs. Not wanting to face another showdown with the President like last year which led to a government shutdown, Republican leaders gave in to most of the Presidents demands. However, they insisted that the President come up with the funds to offset the increase spending. With both sides vowing not to dip into the Social Security surplus to fund new initiatives or increases in other program areas, the President in the end was forced to accept a .38 percent across-the-board cut in discretionary programs. Each Federal agency, however, was given flexibility in determining how the cut would affect its programs. But no program may be cut by more than 15 percent. This means that some programs may not be cut at all while others may be cut up to 15 percent depending on how the agency determines to apply the cut to its programs.

In addition to the across-the-board budget cut, the President and Republican leaders agreed on a number of accounting schemes to show that funds would be available to support the increased spending without tapping Social Security surplus funds. For example the measure include a provision that moves the last federal payday from September 30, 2000 to October 1, 2000 which moves $3.6 billion in expenditures from fiscal year 2000 to 2001. Despite these accounting tactics, the Congressional Budget Office has released a report on December 2 which says the final FY00 Appropriations bills will require dipping into the Social Security surplus by $17 billion next year.

In a significant victory for the Conference, the final FY00 Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary appropriations bill includes $4.5 billion for 2000 census, which is the full amount the Census Bureau requested. This amount includes the additional $1.7 billion requested by the Bureau last June to pay for its revised plan. The plan was revised after the Supreme Court ruled that for purposes of apportioning the 435 seats in the House of Representatives among the states, the Bureau must conduct a person-to-person head count in the 2000 census. However, for redistricting and allocating federal aid, the Bureau may use statistical sampling. Therefore, the Bureau is proceeding with plans to conduct both a head count and a second count using statistical sampling. The Conference strongly supports statistical sampling as a means of addressing the undercount, which the Bureau projects will exceed 5 million without the use of statistical sampling.

What follows is a summary of what was approved in the final FY00 appropriations bills for key programs of interest to the nation's mayors.

ARTS, HUMANITIES, MUSEUMS AND PARKS
Staff Contact: Tom McClimon

Arts and Parks Funding
Parks and recreation programs scored major victories this year. After years of no funding for local parks and recreation programs, Congress appropriated $40 million for the state and local assistance program of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Another $2 million was appropriated for the Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Program (UPARR). These victories will provide momentum as legislation moves forward in the next Congressional session on major funding for local parks and recreation programs.

Again, this year Congress approved funding for the nation's cultural agencies. The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities received $98 million and $115 million respectively. This represents level funding for the arts and a $5 million increase for the humanities. The Institute for Museum and Library Services received a $1 million increase for a total of $24 million.

CRIME AND DRUG CONTROL
Staff Contact: Ed Somers

COPS Funding Increased, Still Below Budget Request
The final appropriations bill contains a total of $913 million for the COPS program. Of this total, $595 million is new funding and $318 million is from unobligated balances. President Clinton vetoed the initial Commerce-Justice-State-Judiciary FY 2000 appropriations bill (HR 2670) primarily because it provided only $325 million in new spending for the COPS program. The COPS program received $1.43 billion in FY 1999 and the President's requested $1.275 billion in his FY' 2000 budget request. The authorized funding level for the program for FY 2000 under the expiring 1994 crime act is $268 million but the Administration has proposed a reauthorization of the program to fund an additional 30,000 to 50,000 officers, new technology and community prosecution. Neither the House nor Senate have acted to pass a new crime bill.

Of the total $913 million contained in the final budget agreement:

• $497.5 million is for hiring new officers

• $230 million is for crime technology

• $15 million is for the safe schools initiative

• $25 million is for the bullet proof vest program

• $35.675 is for methamphetamine

• $10 million is for community prosecutors

• $30 million is for the police corps

Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Level Funded
The final appropriations bill also contains $523 million for the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant (LLEBG). This is the same amount which has been provided for the program over the past several years. However, $50 million is earmarked for the Boys and Girls Clubs, and $20 million is provided to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to help local governments identify, select, develop, modernize and purchase new technologies for use by law enforcement. The final appropriation level for the LLEBG is a major victory, in that the Senate had proposed to cut the program to $400 million.

JOBS, EDUCATION & THE WORKFORCE
Staff Contact: Joan Crigger

Workforce
The bill includes $250 million for the Youth Opportunity Grant program which is directed to out-of-school youth in high poverty communities. In addition, the Summer Youth Employment Program and the Year-Round Youth Program were combined into a single Youth Activities Program and funded at $1.1 billion, which is consistent with FY 1999 funding for both programs. Dislocated Worker Assistance program was increased by $190 million to $1,596 million.

Education
The President scored big in the education arena with a major win for his 100,000 teachers hiring initiative. This program was funded at $1.3 billion, an increase of $100 million over FY1999. Another significant increase was in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (After School Programs), which was increased from $200 million in FY'99 to $453.7 million in FY'00. Adult and Vocational Education programs were also increased to $1.688 billion. Title I Education for the Disadvantaged was also increased to $7.941 billion, an increase of $209 million.

ENVIRONMENT
Staff Contact: Kevin McCarty

Funding for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's key programs generally fared well in the budget process, with Congress and the President agreeing to provide $92 million for brownfields assessment and cleanup efforts in FY'00, which is consistent with the current spending level. In addition, the agency secured $41 million in new funding for a new clean air initiative, the "Clean Air Partnership Fund,"that will provide new resources to states and localities. This will involve a partnership with the private sector, to pursue new technologies and other strategies to improve air quality. New resources are also provided for the Superfund program as well as continuing grants to states for revolving loan funds for water and wastewater facility needs.

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Staff Contact: Crystal Swann

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) fared modestly well in the Omnibus appropriations agreement. Many programs essential to cities gained increases above the President's requests. Congress cleared the $318.5 billion FY'2000 spending bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education on November 19.

Some programs clearly fared better than others. The popular Head Start program was funded at $5.2 billion, an increased of $571 million over FY'99. This will enable the program to serve an additional 33,300 children. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) which helps low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled pay their utility bills during peak heating and cooling seasons was level funded this year at $1.1 billion.

The Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant ($1.6 billion), Community Health Centers ($1 billion), breast and cervical cancer screening ($167 million), Ryan White Title I ($546.6 million), as well as the AIDS Drug Assistance Program ($518 million) received increases for fiscal year 2000.

Other programs suffered huge losses. The Social Services Block Grant ($1.7 billion) and substance abuse prevention programs ($147 million) both received cuts of $209 million and $16 million respectively.

Food and Nutrition Assistance
The Agriculture appropriations bill, signed by President Clinton on October 22, includes $35 billion in funding for domestic food programs. Child Nutrition Programs was funded at $9.554 billion, an increase of $377 million over FY'99. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) received a total of $4 billion, an increase of $108 million over last fiscal year. However, the Food Stamp Program was funded at $21.073 billion, a decrease of $262.4 million below the FY'99 level.

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Staff Contact: Eugene Lowe

CDBG Program
The Community Development Block Grant program was increased from $4.750 billion to $4.800 billion, an increase of $50 million in FY'00. However, set-asides in the program increased from $527 million to $560 million, reducing the amount of funds that go out to cities by formula.

Empowerment Zones & Strategic Communities
The Empowerment Zone program was funded in the HUD budget at $70 million. Of this amount, $55 million will go to urban empowerment zones. Last year's funding level for urban empowerment zones was $45 million. The strategic communities program (the top 15 jurisdictions that were not designated as empowerment zones) was not funded. The administration had requested $45 million for FY'00.

Housing Programs
After not funding the program for 4 years, Congress for the second year in a row provided funding for new housing vouchers. Funding is provided for 60,000 new Section 8 housing vouchers. Last year's level was 50,000 new vouchers. Only one of the major three public housing programs received increased funding. The public housing operating subsidies was increased from $2.818 billion to $3.138 billion. Public housing modernization and the HOPE VI program for severely distressed public housing were both cut. Public housing modernization was cut form $3 billion in FY1999 to $2.9 billion in FY'00 and the HOPE VI program was reduced from $625 million to $575 million.

TRANSPORTATION
Staff Contact: Kevin McCarty

Provisions of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) that guarantee spending levels for highway and transit investment over the six years of the Act produced record levels of investment for Fiscal Year 2000. Total transit spending is set at $5.80 billion, up from the current level of $5.39 billion. For highway programs, spending for this year is $28.9 billion, up from $26.7 billion. DOT's Welfare to work transportation program is funded at the current level of $75 million.

The big issue in transportation is the withholding of $1.95 billion in new Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funds for Fiscal Year 2000, until next year when Congress resumes its negotiations on a multi-year aviation renewal bill. During Fiscal Year 1999, the AIP program, which provides grants to airports for capital investments, received $1.9 billion, although one-half of these funds were withheld for most of the year to force an agreement on a multi-year aviation bill.