Rise in Federal Spending on Social Programs Not Enough, Critics Say

The 2009 “omnibus” budget bill that President Obama signed last week will boost spending on a range of social programs, increasing funds for the Health and Human Services Department by 4 percent, according to an analysis by Independent Sector, a coalition of charities and foundations.

Among the winners: the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Community Services Block Grants, community-service jobs for older people, Head Start, and Job Corps. The analysis shows a few losers too: budgets were cut for abstinence education and for grants to religious and other local organizations under the Compassion Capital Fund.

The $410-billion package, H.R. 1105, authorizes spending for most federal agencies for the rest of fiscal year 2009.

Despite some one-year increases, the Coalition on Human Needs, an alliance of antipoverty groups, says spending on social-service programs has not kept pace with the needs, especially given that the number of people in poverty has been mounting. In an analysis of federal spending on 99 health, housing, nutrition, and other “human needs” programs, it found only 22 had received increases above inflation from 2005 to 2009.

“As the recession worsens and the number of people in poverty grows more rapidly, it is imperative that funding for human-needs programs does not fall further behind,” it said in a statement. (The analysis does not include money from the economic-stimulus package, which will channel additional money to some of the programs.)