Although many federal programs of interest to non-profit groups had been threatened by lawmakers with big spending cuts, most charities will not see major reductions in government support under budget legislation enacted last month.
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President Clinton has signed into law spending bills that provide the same or nearly the same money for several programs that some Republicans in Congress had previously sought to eliminate or severely cut, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the AmeriCorps national-service program.
The money that has been approved affects the fiscal year that began on October 1.
The spending legislation also includes two provisions important to private foundations.
It makes permanent a key tax break for donors who create or expand private foundations with gifts of appreciated stock. It also makes it much easier for the public to obtain information about foundations’ finances.
In a separate law enacted last week, Congress authorized the future expansion of some social-service programs. The statute also included a change that will allow for-profit companies to compete for dollars to run programs for Head Start, a program that helps preschool children.
The table below highlights some of the 1999 appropriations for programs that are of interest to charities and foundations.
Among the programs that survived despite moves earlier in the Congressional session to eliminate or shrink them:
Arts and humanities. Congress provided $98-million to the National Endowment for the Arts, the same amount it received in the previous fiscal year. While President Clinton had sought $136-million for the endowment, many members of the House of Representatives wanted to kill the agency entirely.
The National Endowment for the Humanities also survived amid Congressional criticism, receiving $110.7-million, the same amount as in 1998.
Home-fuel subsidies. Congress decided not to reduce funds to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program -- known as LIHEAP -- which helps pay heating and cooling bills for poor people. The program, which receives its federal appropriation one year in advance of most other programs, received $1.1-billion for the 2000 fiscal year, the same amount that Congress allotted in last year’s vote. Charities that provide similar assistance had worried that they would be overwhelmed with requests for help if Congress had followed the recommendations of some House Republicans to eliminate the program.
Summer jobs for youths. The main federal program that funnels money to non-profit organizations and state and local agencies to pay for summer jobs for young people received $871-million, the same amount as in 1998. A House committee had earlier voted to eliminate all spending on the project.
Volunteerism. The AmeriCorps program, which provides stipends and scholarships to people who perform community service, received $438.5-million, a 4-per-cent increase from last year. That was a major victory for supporters of the program, since the House had passed a bill earlier this year that would have eliminated it. The Clinton Administration had sought $502.3-million.
Over all, the Corporation for National Service, which runs AmeriCorps, as well as the Points of Light Foundation and VISTA, received $714.5-million.
In the new law that authorizes expansion of social-service programs starting in fiscal 1999, Congress declared itself in favor of increases in spending for Community Service Block Grants, which give lump sums to the states for social-services work, and for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The law, however, does not specify how much money the government should spend on the programs in future years.
For the Head Start program, the law allows for-profit companies for the first time to compete with charities and government agencies for a share of the billions of federal dollars spent on education, day care, and other services to poor children.
The law includes a provision that allows charities to be given priority if their bids are equal in quality with those offered by businesses.
And the law creates a new, five-year program to test “individual development accounts,” which allow poor families to have their savings matched, dollar-for-dollar, with federal money that can then be used to purchase a new home, pay college tuition, or start a new business. More than 100 charities have already experimented with accelerated-savings accounts primarily using foundation grants (The Chronicle, September 10).