Budget Roundup by Agency

President Clinton's $1.73 trillion proposed budget for fiscal 1999 would leave the federal government with a $10 billion surplus--less than one percent of the budget--which Clinton has said should be reserved for Social Security reform.

Fifty-three percent of the federal budget goes to Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs. Interest on the national debt consumes 14 percent more. Another 15 percent is used for national defense (see DoD Budget: Downsize, Compete). The remaining 17 percent is divided among the civilian agencies. The President's proposals for these agencies are detailed below.

Agriculture
Highlights of the Agriculture Department's proposed $54.3 billion budget include a plan to restore food stamp benefits to legal immigrants who stopped receiving them under the 1996 welfare reform law and a proposal to require the meat, poultry and egg industries to pay user fees to cover the costs of federal food safety inspections. The department's budget is down 1.3 percent from 1998.

Commerce
Preparation for the 2000 census is boosting the Commerce Department's budget, up 12 percent from 1998 to $4.6 billion. The Census Bureau will be hiring thousands of new employees, and will, under the administration's proposal, spend $1.1 billion in 1999, followed by $2.5 billion in 2000. Commerce will also focus its efforts in 1999 on improving its statistical gathering operations and provide additional funding to the Advanced Technology Program, which funds innovative research and development, but has little support from Republicans on Capitol Hill. "Traditionally, Cabinet secretaries like to highlight how big their budget is and how many more people they have. That tradition is over," Commerce Secretary William Daley said. "We helped grow the economy bigger, without growing ourselves. We remain the smallest of the Cabinet departments."

Education
As the centerpiece of President Clinton's State of the Union address, education is set to be at the center of heated debate between the administration and Capitol Hill in coming months. Under Clinton's plan, the Education Department's budget would go up 10.3 percent to $33.9 billion in 1999. The President wants to hire 100,000 new teachers over seven years, provide tax credits for local school construction, help set up after-school programs and increase support for charter schools.

Energy
The Energy Department is asking for $18 billion in budget authority for 1999, an increase of about 9 percent. The department would spend $338 million on energy efficiency research and development and $421 million on reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation.

Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA's 10 percent budget increase would bring environmental spending in 1998 to $7.1 billion. About $2 billion of that would be dedicated to Superfund cleanups, including $91 million for brownfields redevelopment. The EPA budget would also include $145 million to fund a watershed protection initiative.

Health and Human Services
The National Institutes of Health is slated for a $1 billion spending boost, bringing its 1999 budget to $13.9 billion. HHS as a whole would spend $381 billion in 1999, up 6 percent from 1998. Medicare and Medicaid absorb most of the spending, though the budget also proposes to expand Head Start to an additional 30,000 children. HHS Secretary Donna Shalala claimed much of the savings that led to a balanced budget were achieved by her department. "We were joking the other day that department employees should all wear buttons now that say, 'I balanced the budget,' " she said. "We did it not by squeezing families, but by squeezing every dollar."

Housing and Urban Development
HUD is focusing itself over the next few years on its management reform plan. Its 1999 budget increases about 2 percent to $31.6 billion. The administration proposed $4.7 billion in block grants to cities for urban renewal and $1.5 billion to help states rehabilitate low-income housing.

Interior
The Interior Department's budget would remain virtually unchanged from 1998 to 1999, hovering around $7.9 billion. Included in the budget is more funding for park maintenance to rehabilitate what the department calls the "crumbling infrastructure" of public facilities. The Bureau of Indian Affairs will also get additional funding to improve tribal schools and reservation safety.

Justice
More law enforcement agents is the theme of the Justice Department's proposed 4.4 percent budget hike to $20.9 billion. The budget would pay for 16,000 local police officers, another 1,000 Border Patrol agents, 257 new drug enforcement agents, 69 new attorneys and 75 additional FBI agents for new computer crime squads stationed in cities around the country.

Labor
The Labor Department's $36 billion proposed budget is a 12 percent increase over the 1998 budget request. As welfare recipients continue to move into the workforce, Labor will provide $466 million more welfare-to-work grants in 1999, for a total of about $1.3 billion. Other job training programs cost the government about $7 billion a year.

NASA
Assembly of the International Space Station begins in 1998 and will continue into 1999, when the proposed NASA budget will be about $13.5 billion, down about 2 percent from 1998. NASA will also continue to turn over space shuttle operations to United Space Alliance and will launch four spacecraft missions.

State
As the international affairs agencies merge, the State Department is requesting about $20 billion for fiscal 1999, a slight increase from 1998. The State Department is requesting additional funds for African programs in 1999, including debt relief and education programs. Secretary Madeleine Albright is also requesting $925 million in aid to the former republics of the Soviet Union.

Transportation
The Transportation Department is hoping for its highest level of appropriations ever--$43 billion--in 1999, though that amount is only $400 million higher than the 1998 level approved by Congress. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would see a 22 percent budget increase and the Federal Aviation Administration would get an 18 percent increase for aviation safety.

Treasury
The Internal Revenue Service, the focus of much attention over the last year, would get a $534 million budget boost in 1999 to $8.3 billion for improving customer service and modernizing its computer systems. The Treasury Department as a whole would pay out just under $400 billion in 1999, up about 3 percent from 1998.

Veterans Affairs
Caring for the nation's veterans is expected to cost $43 billion in 1999, about the same as in 1998. The cost-of-living increase for veterans' pensions is expected to be 2.2 percent in January 1999. VA officials are pushing to allow their hospitals to use funds from Medicare, without which, they say, the health-care system is in jeopardy.