Biden budget: More for schools, health, housing
WASHINGTON – In his first budget request to Congress, President Joe Biden is proposing spending billions more on Head Start programs, high-poverty schools and the Environmental Protection Agency and boosting civil rights initiatives, including police reform and the prosecution of hate crimes.
The plan also includes the largest increase in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s budget in 20 years as Biden looks to continue combating the coronavirus pandemic.
The Biden administration submitted a discretionary spending request Friday to Congress for the coming year that includes $769 billion for non-defense federal departments, marking a significant 16% increase for domestic priorities from the final year of President Donald
Trump.
Biden is requesting $753 billion for the Defense Department, a modest 1.7% increase, signaling a change in priorities from Trump, who embraced more significant increases in defense spending.
Much of the new spending proposed for the 2022 fiscal year would infuse federal dollars into education, environ
mental and other domestic programs that Trump unsuccessfully worked to cut.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president inherited “a legacy of chronic underinvestment” in key areas and is “focused on reversing this trend and reinvesting in the foundations of our strength.” She called the budget proposal an “indication of our priorities.”
Overall, Biden is requesting $1.52 trillion in discretionary spending, an 8.4% increase over the current year.
Areas for which Biden is requesting major funding increases include:
h A record $36.5 billion for Title I grants for high-poverty schools, a $20 billion increase over the current year
h $11.9 billion for the federal Head
Start program that provides early childhood education for low-income families, a $1.2 billion bump over the current year. The program serves 95,000 fewer children today than a decade ago
h $8.7 billion for the CDC, an increase of $1.6 billion, which would be the CDC’S largest in 20 years. The CDC budget this past year was 10% lower than a decade ago.
h An additional $14 billion across multiple federal agencies aimed at tackling climate change. That includes $1.8 billion for EPA programs to reduce greenhouse gases. Funding for EPA climate change science and technology is 27% lower today than 10 years ago.
Biden has also proposed $6.5 billion to launch the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health within the National Institutes of Health to ramp up research on cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
The discretionary request includes $30.4 billion for federal housing vouchers, which the White House says would allow 200,000 additional families to receive the assistance. Biden is requesting a $500 million increase for homeless assistance grants that would support an additional 100,000 households.
In a major change from Trump’s priorities, Biden is requesting $2.1 billion for efforts to combat gun violence, an increase of $232 million over the current year.
Biden is also looking to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement, with a $209 million discretionary request for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Community Relations Service and other programs.
It would mark a $33 million increase over the current year for the DOJ’S Civil Rights Division, with funds going toward police reform, the prosecution of hate crimes, enforcement of voting rights, and “mediation and conciliation services for community conflicts arising from discriminatory practices,” the White House said.