Vermont And The 2000 Budget: Leahy Puts Analysis Online

February 01, 1999

Sen. Patrick Leahy says the President's proposed balanced budget for federal fiscal year 2000, released today, accents several priorities important to Vermont, including farmland protection and anticrime technology grants. "The priorities in this budget are largely Vermont's priorities," Leahy said. "Some White House budgets are deadonarrival on Capitol Hill. This one deserves close attention by Congress."

Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today published his annual Vermont profile of the budget proposal, the first available for the President's budget, which was released this morning. The Vermont budget profile is available for review by Vermonters on the Leahy home page (http://leahy.senate.gov/press/199902/990201b.html). Some highlights from initial analysis by Leahy's staff:

LAKE CHAMPLAIN BASIN PROGRAM:  $ 1 million. Last year's funds supported local pollution prevention efforts and research on phosphorus reduction and on historic sites, among other projects.

GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST LAND ACQUISITION:  $3 million.

LEAHY FARMLAND PROTECTION PROGRAM:  The President included $50 million for the Farmland Protection Program as part of the Administration's Lands Legacy Initiative in the FY2000 budget. Leahy authored the program in the 1996 LugarLeahy Farm Bill and modeled it on the Farms For Our Future initiative in Vermont that Leahy had initiated in the 1990 LeahyLugar Farm Bill. Leahy on Tuesday will introduce legislation to carry out the President's plan by reauthorizing the Farmland Protection Program at $55 million each year. The Lands Legacy Initiative also includes $50 million for the Leahy Forest Legacy Program and for the Land and Water Conservation Fund state grants program. Leahy has pushed the Administration to add these requests to the President's budget plan.

POLICE TECHNOLOGY GRANTS:  The President requests $125 million to implement the DeWineLeahy Crime Identification Technology Act, enacted last October. He also requests funds for another Leahy program signed into law last year that will help local and state police purchase bulletproof vests for their officers. Vermont's share under that program for FY2000 would be at least $125,000.

LIHEAP:  The President has requested the same level of funding, $1.1 billion, that Congress approved last year, which would mean $6,377,000 for Vermont.

NUTRITION PROGRAMS:  For the WIC supplemental nutrition program the President has requested a budget of $4.2 billion, an increase of $141 million. Also: $20 million (an increase of $5 million) for the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, authored by Leahy, and a request of $13 million to fund a school breakfast pilot program advocated by Leahy, to test the correlation between school breakfasts and educational achievement.

McNEIL BIOMASS GASIFICATION:  The President requests $5.5 million for continued development of this technology demonstration project in Burlington, launched by Leahy three years ago, testing the burning of wood chips under a process that can significantly reduce production of greenhouse gases in societies around the world.

STATES' TOBACCO SETTLEMENT:  The President's budget reaffirms that the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) will seek recoupment of what the agency says is the federal share of Medicaid costs for treating tobaccorelated diseases from the 50 state tobacco settlement. The federal share of Medicaid is approximately 60 percent of total Medicaid costs. The Administration does not allocate any of these funds for FY2000 and says it will work with the states and Congress to resolve its claims. Vermont's share of the multistate tobacco settlement is $30 million annually and a total of $805 million over the next 25 years. On Wednesday, Leahy will join Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (RTexas) and Bob Graham (DFla.) in introducing a bill to waive any federal claim to the multistate tobacco settlement.