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April 1, 2005/Adar II 21 5765, Volume 57, No. 31
Jewish groups worried about U.S. budget cuts
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Jewish groups preparing for looming battles on the nation's budget are heartened that funding for Medicaid seems to have been salvaged - but they anticipate many other struggles this year.
Several Jewish organizations had placed the battle against proposed Medicaid cuts at the top of their agendas. They were ready to square off against the Bush administration and congressional conservatives who have advocated a reduction of up to $20 billion over five years for the program, which helps pay for health care for the poor and disabled.
However, the Senate voted in March to strip the Medicaid cuts, suggesting Congress may be willing to reconsider other White House spending priorities as well.
Jewish groups remain very concerned about a proposal in President Bush's $2.6 trillion budget to cut domestic spending by 1 percent across the board, worried how it might affect programs that aid elderly and impoverished Jews. But the Senate's Medicaid move is being read as a signal that not all of Bush's priorities will pass congressional muster.
"I think it means they're not a rubber stamp," Sammie Moshenberg, Washington director of the National Council for Jewish Women, said of the Republican-controlled Congress. "It sends a message to all of us who care about issues that it's not hopeless."
Many Jews are looking to Congress to fight proposed cuts to housing subsidies and other retirement services. While Jewish organizations largely have chosen to stay out of the Social Security debate, opponents of the White House's privatization plans hope Congress will act deliberately on any reform to the program.
However, the Medicaid cuts were included in the House of Representatives' budget proposal, and could be reinserted when the two chambers craft a conference version in April.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs has been pushing members to meet with legislators and urge them to keep Medicaid funding.
"It's a recognition that this is a central program for low-income Americans, and it should be studied further before making random cuts," said Reva Price, JCPA's Washington director.
Jews remain concerned about other proposed cuts in Congress' spending priorities, including $27 billion cut from education and job-training programs over five years, and the potential for deep reductions to food stamp programs because of cuts in the Agriculture Department budget.
Advocates also are watching a proposal to decrease the foreign-operations budget below Bush's request. The Senate's version called for $33.9 billion for international affairs, $239 million less than Bush requested. The House recommended a $32.17 billion budget, $1.4 billion below the White House request.
Jewish groups often have backed foreign aid across the board in order to limit attention to money going to Israel.
Both the House and Senate proposals are higher than last year's foreign aid bill of $29.72 billion. Nonetheless, foreign aid advocates said they will press for additional increases, and they remain hopeful.
The United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization for the Jewish federation system, also is likely to push for more homeland-security funding for high-risk nonprofit institutions.
Stephan Klein, UJC's director of governmental affairs, said he believed the homeland-security spending still had a good chance of becoming law again this year through congressional sponsorship.
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