NAMI E-News January 3, 2003 03-01
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108th Congress Set To Convene
Completion of FY
2003 Spending Bills First Order of Business
The newly elected 108th Congress will be sworn in on January 7 and will
immediately begin consideration of spending bills for the current 2003 fiscal
year. There are 11 remaining spending bills (known as appropriations) for FY
2003 covering a broad range of domestic agencies and programs including mental
illness research and services, housing and veterans’ programs. These spending
bills will cover the remaining months of the current 2003 fiscal year, which
actually began on October 1, 2002 and will run through September 30, 2003.
Because this is a new Congress, each of these 11 bills must be reintroduced as
new legislation next week and begin moving through the legislative process all
over again. Current plans hold for Congress to complete these remaining 2003
spending bills before the President releases his FY 2004 budget proposal on
February 3.
Since October 1, federal agencies and programs have been operating under a
series of "continuing resolutions" that have kept the government running at FY
2002 spending levels. The current "continuing resolution" runs through January
11 and is likely to be extended until the end of the month to give Congress
time to act on the remaining FY 2003 appropriations bills. If Congress fails
to come to agreement on these FY 2003 spending bills, it is expected that some
members of Congress will advocate instead for a full year “continuing
resolution” to keep the government operating at FY 2002 spending through the
rest of the fiscal year. Such a result would have disastrous consequences for
agencies and programs that were due for important budget increases in FY 2003
– including a $111 million increase for scientific research on mental illness.
ACTION REQUIRED
NAMI advocates are strongly encouraged to contact their members of Congress
and urge them to:
- oppose a full year “continuing resolution” for the rest of FY 2003,
- contact House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist,
House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young and Senate Appropriations Chairman
Ted Stevens and insist that Congress complete the remaining FY 2003 spending
bills,
- finish the bipartisan goal of doubling the NIH budget
– including the proposed $111 million increase for FY 2003 for mental illness
research at NIMH,
-support efforts to end chronic homelessness experienced by individuals with
severe mental illness by a) acting on President Bush’s proposed $7 million
increase for the PATH program, and b) ensuring adequate funding for renewal of
current HUD Shelter Plus Care (permanent supportive housing) rent subsidies,
-act on increases proposed by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees
for the HUD Section 811 program (including renewal of all expiring project-
based and tenant-based rent subsidies in FY 2003), and
-oppose FY 2003 cuts to CMHS programs including the Mental Health Block Grant,
Jail Diversion, Community Action Grants and other activities.
All members of Congress can be reached by calling the Capitol Switchboard toll
free at 1-800-839-5276 or at 202-224-3121 or online through
www.congress.org.
Additional background information on the details of proposed FY 2003
funding levels for mental illness research, services, housing and veterans’
programs is included below.
Background Information on FY 2003 Spending Bills
Mental Illness Research & Services Funding
Included in the unfinished spending bills is the Labor-HHS-Education
Appropriations measure that encompasses funding for the National Institute of
Mental Health (NIMH) and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS).
Increases for both of these agencies are included in the Labor-HHS-Education
spending bill; most importantly, a $111 million (or 7.8%) increase for mental
illness research at NIMH (raising FY 2003 funding to $1.359 billion). This
increase is part of the bipartisan effort, supported by President Bush, to
complete the 5-year doubling of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) –
raising annual NIH budget to $27 billion.
For CMHS (part of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration), both the President’s FY 2003 budget proposal (and last year’s
Senate bill) includes a $7 million increase for the PATH program (services for
homeless individuals with mental illness), increasing the program to $47
million. Both the President’s budget, and last year’s proposed Senate bill,
also include level funding for the Mental Health Block Grant (the state
formula grant program financing services for adults with severe mental
illnesses and children with severe emotional disturbances) at $433 million.
For CMHS’s discretionary budget (known as Programs of Regional and National
Significance or PRNS) as much as $12 million in increases proposed in last
year’s Senate bill are in jeopardy. PRNS is the discretionary budget for CMHS,
i.e. funds under federal control of CMHS, as opposed to the Mental Health
Block Grant and PATH that are formula grant programs to the states. The Bush
Administration’s original budget request for FY 2003 proposed to cut the PRNS
account by $7.5 million, a cut that would have been achieved by discontinuing
a number of technical assistance centers and new community action grant
programs. By contrast, last year’s proposed Senate bill specifically added
back $5.5 million for new and ongoing community action grants. A number of
NAMI affiliates have utilized these grants to develop jail diversion and other
initiatives in their communities. Last year’s Senate bill also added $2
million for renewal of separate national technical assistance centers focused
on consumers, consumer-supporters, families with children and programs of
assertive community treatment (PACT).
Last year’s Senate bill for FY 2003 proposed $5 million to continue a new
senior citizen program at CMHS and an additional $1 million for the CMHS Jail
Diversion program (bringing the FY 2003 total up to $5 million). Note – a
separate Senate appropriations bill containing funding for the Justice
Department included an additional $3 million for the federal Mental Health
Courts program for FY 2003. NAMI supports funding for both the CMHS Jail
Diversion programs and the Mental Health Courts program as important resources
in helping states and communities address the growing and very disturbing
trend of "criminalization" of mental illness. Finally, last year’s Senate bill
proposed a $3 million increase for the PAIMI (protection and advocacy)
program, up $35.5 million in FY 2003, with a directive for P&A agencies to
maintain a priority on investigating deaths and injuries resulting from the
inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion in psychiatric hospitals and
other institutions.
Funding for Housing & Veterans’ Programs
Funding for housing and veterans programs are part of a separate spending
measure known as the VA-HUD Appropriations bill. Last year’s House and Senate
bills included a $2.56 billion increase for veterans' medical care (including
treatment and supportive services for veterans with mental illness). The VHA
budget includes funding for 172 medical centers and 876 outpatient clinics.
The VHA is the largest systems in the country that provides both inpatient and
outpatient psychiatric care. It is estimated that 454, 598 veterans have a
service connected disability due to a mental illness. Of great concern to NAMI
are the 130,211 veterans who are service connected for psychosis (104,593 of
whom were treated in the VA for schizophrenia, according to 1999 data).
The VA-HUD bill also contains funding for important housing programs at HUD
including the McKinney-Vento Homeless programs, Section 811 supportive housing
and the Section 8 rental voucher program. This includes funding to renew all
expiring rent subsidies under the Shelter Plus Care program (permanent
supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals with mental illness
and co-occurring substance abuse disorders) and the Section 811 program (both
tenant-based and project-based subsidies).
HUD Section 811 – Last year’s proposed House VA-HUD bill for FY 2003
included a $18 million increase for the HUD Section 811 program, bringing the
program up to $259.1 million. This is nearly $9 million above the increase
recommended by President Bush that was supported in last year’s Senate bill.
The Section 811 program provides funding to non-profit organizations to
develop group homes and other community housing options that serve adults with
severe disabilities, including severe mental illnesses. Section 811 is
critical source of funding for housing for non-elderly adults with severe
mental illnesses.
In addition to adding funds for the 811 program, both last year’s House and
Senate bills would require HUD to limit the amount of program funding that can
be diverted to tenant-based rental assistance, away from capital advances to
non-profits and project-based rental assistance (the traditional form of 811
funding). Tenant-based assistance, also known as a voucher, provides a monthly
rent subsidy to individual eligible low-income tenants, thereby allowing them
to select their own housing in the community (typically without supports
linked to the housing). By contrast, capital advances and project-based
assistance are direct assistance to non-profit sponsors to increase the stock
of affordable housing for specific populations and typically involves linking
support services directly to housing.
For FY 2003, both the capital advance/project-based and tenant-based
("mainstream") sides of the Section 811 program face a continued challenge
with respect to renewal of expiring rent subsidies. In both cases, these
ongoing obligations to renew funding associated with units already in
existence are expected to drain limited resources limited resources from the
Section 811 program. For the capital advance/project-based side, HUD estimates
that $6 million will be needed to renew expiring project- based rent subsidies
(also known as PRACs).
On the tenant-based “mainstream” side, HUD projects that $32 million will be
needed in FY 2003 to renew expiring tenant-based rent subsidies that were
originally funded in prior years. This is an increase of $9 million over the
amount Congress allocated in FY 2002 for Section 811 tenant-based renewals
($23 million). The end result is that the burden for renewing project-based
and tenant-based rent subsidies will likely exceed the increase recommended in
last year’s House bill.
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance – Both last year’s proposed House
and Senate VA-HUD Appropriations bills included important increases for
federal homeless programs under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act,
above the program’s current $1.22 billion allocation. The McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act includes a range of permanent housing and service
programs such as Shelter Plus Care, SHP (permanent supportive housing),
Emergency Shelter Grants, Section 8 Moderate Rehab and Single Room Occupancy.
Nearly all of these permanent and transitional housing programs serve
currently or former homeless adults with severe mental illnesses and/or
co-occurring substance abuse.
The Bush Administration and key leaders in Congress continue to support the
current policy of establishing a minimum 30% set aside of overall homeless
program funding for development of permanent housing serving chronically
homeless people with disabilities - as opposed to services for homeless
individuals and families (the bill would also continue the 25% local match
required for services). NAMI supports this policy as the most effective means
of developing at least 150,000 units of permanent supportive housing and
taking a major step toward ending chronic homelessness among people with
severe mental illness over the next decade.
Last year’s FY 2003 House and Senate VA-HUD bills included $193 million for
renewal of all expiring rent subsidies under the Shelter Plus Care (S+C)
program. The Bush Administration did not request any funds for this purpose
for FY 2003. S+C is a critical permanent housing resource for adults with
severe mental illnesses. Many S+C (as well as permanent supported housing, SHP)
projects that were begun in the 1990s are now facing a funding crisis as 5-
year rent subsidies are now coming up for renewal. In states and communities
across the country, this housing is at risk in cases where local officials are
giving low priority ratings to rent subsidy renewals as part of HUD's
"Continuum of Care" process for allocating federal homeless funds at the local
level.
Without separate funding for S+C and SHP renewals, thousands of formerly
homeless adults with severe mental illnesses will be placed at risk of losing
subsidized housing through no fault of their own. NAMI therefore supports
continuation of BOTH the separate $193 million account for Shelter Plus Care
and SHP permanent housing renewals for FY 2003.
Section 8 Vouchers – Both last House and Senate bills and the
President’s budget proposed to expand the existing allocation of Section 8
tenant-based vouchers for non-elderly adults with disabilities (including
people with severe mental illnesses) – the Senate and the President proposed
$40 million, the House $36 million. Over the past five years, Congress has
appropriated nearly $300 million for vouchers targeted specifically to
individuals who have lost, or will in the future lose, access to housing as a
result of designation of assisted and public housing as "elderly only."
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Thank you.
Last Updated on
04/14/04
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