Washington Roundup February 8, 2002
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This week, President Bush released his FY 2003 budget request. The budget contained a $127 million increase for the President's Drug Treatment Initiative. This increase would boost Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant funding by $60 million and Targeted Capacity Expansion programs at the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) by $67 million. The increases would help fulfill President Bush's pledge last spring to increase federal treatment funding by $1.6 billion over five years. However, the budget request also proposed reducing funding for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) by $45 million.

Part of this year's budget request for CSAT includes a new $50 million Targeted Capacity Expansion initiative to help states close their treatment gaps. This competitive grant program would enable 12 states to develop their own comprehensive strategy to address statewide treatment gaps. CSAT would use state estimates from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse to determine the funding needs for each state that would receive an award. As a part of the award, CSAT would require that states propose targets for increasing treatment capacity and provide a plan for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their treatment systems.

At CSAP, the initiatives receiving the bulk of the $45 million cut in the President's budget request were the Best Practices programs that develop information about which prevention programs are most effective. In order to absorb the funding cut in this area, the budget proposes that CSAP increase its partnering activities with other agencies, including the National Institutes on Drug Abuse and Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, to determine effective, evidence-based prevention programming.

Proposed FY 2003 funding for the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Program would be maintained at the FY 2002 level. Overall, the program would receive $644 million, with $472 million going to the State Grants portion of the program, preserving the FY 2002 funding increase of $33 million for State Grants. The President's budget request indicates that the Administration will be evaluating the effectiveness of this program during the coming year to determine whether it should continue to receive support.

The budget request would fund the Ryan White Care Act at $1.911 billion, the same as in FY 2002. This funding provides critical treatment and support services to people with HIV/AIDS, including drug and alcohol treatment services.

With the release of the President's budget, Congress began its own budget and appropriations process for FY 2003. The Senate and House Budget Committees are in the process of reviewing the President's budget and the funding priorities of Congress. The Appropriations Committees in both chambers presently will be scheduling hearings to examine budget and program priorities. These hearings should begin in late March or April.

Overview of Funding for Drug and Alcohol
Treatment, Prevention, Education, and Research

Davis Introduces Legislation to Increase Public Safety: Tax Credit Would Encourage Development of Housing and Support Services for Ex-Offenders Re-Entering Communities

This week, Representative Danny K. Davis (D-IL) introduced legislation that would help provide appropriate housing and other support services to thousands of individuals who will be returning to their communities from prison during the next several years. The "Public Safety Ex-Offender Self-Sufficiency Act of 2002" would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a low-income housing credit to encourage private developers, community development corporations, and associated non-profits to provide housing, job training, drug treatment, and other support services to ex-offenders re-entering their communities.

Congressman Davis introduced the legislation to help individuals become self-sufficient, and as a result increase public safety by lowering recidivism rates. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 62% of those released from state prisons will be re-arrested within three years and 40% will be re-incarcerated. Nationally, the Department of Justice has reported that over 2 million people are incarcerated in state and federal prisons. This year, more than 630,000 will leave prison and return to neighborhoods around the country.

Original co-sponsors of the legislation included Representatives Charles Rangel (D-NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Edolphus Towns (D-NY), and Bennie Thompson (D-MS). The legislation will be referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.