ACTION ALERT

The Jewish Federations of North America has provided guidance on advocacy efforts following the budget deal. Please read below for important information.

 

As you have heard, Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling in advance of today's deadline.  Yesterday the House of Representatives voted 269-161 to adopt the Budget Control Act. Today the Senate followed suit by a margin of 74-26.  President Obama signed the bill. Enactment of this provision averted an economic catastrophe but the price was high. Here are the main provisions of the deal:  

 

1) The Budget Control Act raises the $14.3 trillion debt limit by at least $2.1 trillion with an immediate release to the U.S. Treasury of $400 billion. $500 billion is released this fall unless two-thirds of both chambers of Congress vote to prevent it. The final debt ceiling increase would occur early next year and will provide the Treasury with sufficient borrowing power to pay the costs of the federal government into early 2013. 

 

2) The Budget Control Act includes an immediate statutory cap on discretionary spending of $935 billion over the next 10 years with approximately $550 billion taken from domestic accounts. The immediate reduction in the deficit will be achieved by placing annual statutory caps on discretionary appropriations for fiscal years 2012 through 2021. For FY 2012 and 2013, a "firewall" will be erected between security (national defense, homeland security and related activities) and non-security accounts - meaning domestic programs could not be raided to provide more security spending. The caps for fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2021 will not segregate security and non-security spending. If lawmakers do not adhere to the discretionary appropriations caps, a process for imposing across-the-board, automatic spending cuts from discretionary accounts will take effect after Congress adjourns for the year.

 

3) After these initial cuts, the Budget Control Act provides for a new Congressional Joint Committee to recommend an additional $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. This Committee equally comprised of Democrats and Republicans must make recommendations to the full Congress by November 23, 2011 and these recommendations will be subject to an up or down vote (avoiding the filibuster in the Senate). If the Committee cannot make recommendations or if the recommendations are voted down by year's end, additional automatic cuts will go into effect for discretionary programs and some entitlements between FY 2013-2021. There are some specific exemptions from these automatic cuts:  Programs targeting low-income individuals and families (including Medicaid) would largely be exempt from a sequester (but Medicaid and these kinds of programs would not otherwise be exempt from the jurisdiction of the Committee and its recommendations). The special joint committee would be likely to look closely at entitlement spending to achieve its deficit reduction goals, but Medicare cuts would be restricted to no more than two percent of the program's outlays, and would only affect payments to providers, not beneficiaries.

 

4) The Budget Control Act also requires a vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment in the House and Senate after October 1, 2011 and before the end of the year.

 

The Budget Control Act will have a significant impact on the Federation Movement but its specific impact will depend on the effect of our advocacy over the next several months.  At this point, no one knows which programs will be targeted in the short or long-term. We have to assume that every program that we care about could be impacted. 

 

With all discretionary spending on the table as Congress begins to deliberate the cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act, the broad range of programs that impact our communities is at risk. While we urge you to promote programs that are of particular importance to your community, we also urge you to promote the following domestic discretionary programs in your summer recess meetings and other advocacy communications, which impact most federations and our movement as a whole:

 

• Emergency Food and Shelter Program - provides supplemental support to thousands of nonprofit and public food banks, shelters, feeding programs, and homelessness prevention organizations across the country based on rates of poverty and unemployment.    
• Nonprofit Security Grant Program - provides grants to support physical security improvements and preparedness training to nonprofit organizations deemed at-risk of terrorist attack.    
• Older Americans Act - provides home and community-based services to help seniors with needs such as home-delivered and congregate meals, caregiver assistance, transportation, and Aging in Place program support.  
• Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly and Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities - Section 202 provides rent subsidies and helps finance construction of housing unites for low-income seniors. Section 811 provides rent subsidies and helps fund nonprofits that develop rental housing with services for low income adults with disabilities.  

These programs all could be targets for cuts in the short-term, as part of the original $585 billion in discretionary program cuts that the Appropriations Committees will be determining in September as part of the FY 2012 budget process (although agreed to cuts could stretch out over the next nine years). Additional cuts to these discretionary programs could come as part of the recommendations made by the new Joint Congressional Committee by November 23^rd  

 

While the Joint Committee is not required to consider changes to the tax code or to the Medicaid program, it has the jurisdiction to do so. The Federations are deeply troubled by the potential impact that any modification to the charitable deduction would have on the ability of America's charitable organizations to provide needed social services, particularly during this tenuous economic recovery.  

 

Under several prominent congressional proposals that the Joint Committee could consider, Medicaid could be restructured by capping funds flowing to states and/or creating a block grant formula.  Block granting or capping Medicaid funds would result in the denial of health and long-term care to millions of vulnerable Americans. Though our Jewish federations and their partner agencies want to work constructively toward achieving Medicaid reform, we believe that a block grant, cap on Medicaid funds, or the shifting of Medicaid costs to states would be devastating to the populations served. 

 

Here's our central advocacy message: As Congress returns our fiscal house to order, we strongly believe that our most vulnerable populations should not absorb the bulk of our nation's fiscal pain. We urge Congress to maintain these crucial discretionary safety net programs, safeguard the charitable contribution deduction, and reform Medicaid but preserve its basic structure.

 

Based on the urgency of this situation and the stakes for the Federation Movement and individual communities, we urge you to set up meetings with your Members of Congress and advocate for these priorities.  Bring influential key contacts to these meetings! The House of Representatives has now left DC for its "summer work period" and the Senate will soon follow. Members will be at home through Labor Day. For scheduling purposes, Senators/Representatives can be reached in their district offices or through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. If you are planning to engage with your elected officials during the August recess period, please click here to access a short form so we can best assist you!