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The Senate last week passed the FY 2006 Labor/HHS
Appropriations Bill with funding increases for
the Senior Corps intact as proposed by the
President and agreed to by the House earlier
this year. The measure now goes to conference
between the House and Senate, with hopes of
completing action by the expiration of the
current Continuing Resolution on November 18.
While the numbers in the House and Senate are
identical (RSVP +$1.760 million, SCP +$1.533
million, FGP +$634,000) and are technically
nonnegotiable, there is still a potential for an
across-the-board cut being applied to ALL
domestic appropriations accounts at the end of
the process in the interests of deficit
reduction.
All Directors should contact their respective
House and Senate members to thank them for their
support of the (albeit modest) increases in
Senior Corps programs but caution them against
any effort to reduce programs across-the-board
at the end of the process. Rumors abound and it
is unclear whether leaders in the House and
Senate will be able to push through the cuts
being demanded by budget hawks. Still,
across-the-board cuts as high as 5% could be on
the table. We must sensitize ALL Members of
Congress to the potential adverse impact of such
a cut.
Legislative Archives
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