Having problems with message search?
Some action
plans and talking points. Just as a review, Survivors, Inc. is funded by
VOCA, and RPE funds.
Terri
Hamrick Kessel, MNM
Executive Director
Survivors,
Inc.
Post Office Box 3572
(717) 334-0589 Extension 22
Facsimile (717) 334-3576
EMail: Terri@...
Survivors supports those who experience domestic violence or sexual assault and
strives to create a world in which violence against women and children is
unthinkable.
From: NAESVPolicy@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NAESVPolicy@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of ELLEN FERN
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008
1:33 AM
To: NAESVPolicy@yahoogroups.com
Subject: President's FY 2009
Budget and Strategy
As a follow-up to the State Coalition call
last week where we discussed the President's proposed FY 2009 budget, I
thought I would share the highlights of our discussion with those on the list
serv who were unable to make the call (we know what a busy time of year
this is). In addition to summarizing the budget, we also talked about
when State Coalitions and its members will be called upon to contact members of
Congress to support better appropriations bills when Congress begins to write
its own spending measures.
To recap:
The President released his $3 trillion FY
2009 budget on February 4th to Congress which freezes domestic discretionary spending for the next
five years. Overall, 61 percent of spending in fiscal 2009 under
Bush’s proposed budget would be for mandatory programs such as Social
Security, Medicare and interest on the national debt, with annual spending for
discretionary programs making up the remaining 39 percent. Overall the
President's budget eliminates 151 programs (savings of $18 billion)
across all federal agencies and sets spending limits that will
balance the budget by 2012. As expected, domestic priorities
such as health care, education and victim related services were all
slashed, while the Defense Department would receive a large increase. This
increase does not even include additional spending for the wars in
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE
REACTION BY CONGRESS TO THIS BUDGET WAS "DEAD ON ARRIVAL" and by all
accounts Congress plans on ignoring it,
and as it did last year in FY 2008, write appropriations bills which reflect
Congressional priorities.
Key Highlights:
VAWA Programs
Overall, the President's budget proposes devastating cuts to
victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, and dating violence.
Specifically the budget includes a cut
to OVW programs by $120 million, from $400M to $280M -- and
would turn it into one block grant program again
as the administration proposed last year as well. (CONGRESS SOUNDLY REJECTED
THIS NOTION LAST YEAR).
The President also proposes three other new block grants:
Violent Crime Reduction Partnership Initiatives to help communities suffering
from high rates of violent crime; Byrne Public Safety and Protection (Byrne)
Program to assist state, local, and tribal governments with their
highest-priority concerns, such as violent and drug-related crime and
presidential priorities, such as DNA backlog reduction and offender re-entry
programs; and the Child Safety and Juvenile Justice Program which would
consolidate existing juvenile justice and exploited children programs.
VOCA Fund
The President maintains the VOCA cap ($590 million) and
once again calls for the elimination of the VOCA fund. Last year because
of your calls and the efforts of our allies, the VOCA fund was saved from
complete elimination in FY 2008. However, despite the best efforts
of our champions in Congress, we were not ultimately able
to raise the VOCA cap and the overall fund did sustain a cut of $35 million as
part of a 6% cut to all Department of Justice programs. Already
NAESV and its allies are joining together to support Rep. Ted Poe's (R-TX)
efforts to raise the VOCA cap to $770 million in FY 2009.
Rape Prevention Education (RPE)
The President's budget proposes to cut RPE to $41.838 million which is a decrease of $178,000
from the FY 2008 funding level. Overall HHS VAWA funding
is $172.3 million.
If you are interested in more details about the President's
proposed budget and to learn more about all the programs highlighted
above, go to: http://www.naesv.org/Resources/BriefingBookFY09condensed.pdf
GETTING READY FOR
ACTIVATION
In the coming months ahead, sexual assault advocates WILL
have the opportunity to contact their congressional delegations to let them
know how they feel about funding for sexual assault services as well as prevention.
However, because we know how busy you all are with State budget and legislative
activities, along with your ongoing coalition work, we want to activate the
grassroots strategically at key points during the process.
We anticipate basically three major opportunities for when
this will happen:
- Representative Tammy Baldwin
(D-WI) and a Republican counterpart (we're still working on that) will
soon circulate a Dear Colleague in the House of Representatives asking
their counterparts to increase funding this year for the Sexual Assault
Services Program. We anticipate this letter going out in the
next 2 weeks and we will be asking the field to make calls urging
their Congressmen/women to sign this Dear Colleague.
- When
the House Appropriations Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice,
Science as well as Labor, Health and Human Services and Education begin
writing their bills (probably in May/June), we will be asking the field
to make calls in support of increasing funding for VAWA programs
as well as RPE.
- When the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science as well as Labor, Health and
Human Services and Education begin writing their bills (probably in
May/June), we will be asking the field to make calls in support of
increasing funding for VAWA programs as well as RPE.
If
we are not as successful as we were last year with the House and
Senate appropriations subcommittees and are not pleased with our funding
levels, then we will be working on an amendment strategy and will be going
back out to the field (probably around July) to ask for more calls of
support.
MAD NOW AND WANT TO DO SOMETHING?
If you're just so mad now and would really like
to make your voice her protesting the President's budget, feel free to call
your Members of Congress through a toll-free number set up by NNEDV.
Call
1.888.256.7413 and ask to be connected to your Senators and
Representative and tell them to fully fund the Violence Against Women Act,
increase thereby increasing funding for the Sexual Assault Program; raise the
VOCA cap to $770 million and protect VOCA from elimination; and increase
funding for the Rape Prevention Education Program.
Please be assured, however, that we will be needing
to activate the field in the coming weeks around specific legislative activity!
Stay tuned for these upcoming action items and further
information about what you can do to secure funding for your programs in the FY
2009 Appropriations process.
For more information on the President’s Budget: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/
Offline 
Send Email