Head Start Emergency Supplemental 2008
May 6, 2008
Congress will also be considering a 2008 emergency supplemental package focusing primarily on defense spending. There will be a possible House floor vote later this week on the war supplemental, with Democratic leaders hoping to bring the legislation to the House floor on Thursday. While details of this measure are unknown at the moment, there has been talk that the emergency supplemental will include three separate amendments to that bill — one for more than $170 billion in fiscal 2008 and 2009 war funding, another for domestic spending items, and a third for a series of Iraq-related policy provisions. It is unclear what the domestic spending priorities will be. The package is expected to include most or all of the president’s request for $5.8 billion in fiscal 2009 emergency funding for efforts to aid the Gulf Coast, and leaders also plan to include an extension of unemployment benefits, some funding for increased veterans benefits, and language to block Medicaid regulations proposed by President Bush. Still unknown is how the package could look after Senate consideration, where many Senators want to add more domestic funding. Once members of the Democratic Caucus meet today, Head Start advocates will have a clearer sense of whether Head Start funding will be a part of this package.
The President’s proposed FY 2009 budget flat funds Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) for a seventh consecutive year, which will result in 200,000 fewer children receiving child care assistance by 2009, in addition to the thousands of children that have already lost child care assistance due to years of flat funding. In order to restore CCDBG to FY 2002 funding levels, an increase of $874 million would be needed in 2009.
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