An outline of President Biden’s proposed 2022 budget released Friday contains robust funding for state and local governments that would help them beyond the funding in the recently-enacted stimulus legislation.
The 58-page summary released by the White House Office of Management and Budget would increase overall discretionary spending by 16%.
Public education grants for districts or individual schools with a concentration of low-income families would more than double under Title 1, increasing by $20 billion to $36.5 billion.
Grants under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) program would increase by $2.6 billion to $15.5 billion for special education and related services for students with disabilities.
Overall federal support for K through 12 education would rise by 41%, according to Rachel Mackey, associate legislative director for the National Association of Counties.
Proposed funding for the Department of Transportation would increase by $317 million over the 2021 enacted funding, but discretionary spending would rise by $3.2 billion, or 14%, the White House said.
“The majority of DOT’s financial assistance to states, localities, and transportation authorities is provided through mandatory funding derived from the Highway Trust Fund, as part of multiyear surface transportation authorizations,” the budget document noted. Those funding levels will be addressed in the administration’s proposed infrastructure legislation.
On the discretionary side of the budget, Biden is proposing a new $110 million transportation program called Thriving Communities, “which would foster transportation equity by providing capacity-building grants to underserved communities,” the budget said.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development would get funding for a 200,000 increase in the number of families receiving Housing Choice Vouchers.
Biden also proposes a $500 million increase for Homeless Assistance Grants to serve 100,000 additional households and an additional $800 million for HUD to pay for housing rehabilitation that includes energy efficiency and resiliency improvements.
Community Development Block Grants to local governments would be increased by $295 million to $3.8 billion.
Another proposal calls for spending $3.6 billion for water infrastructure improvements for community water systems, schools, and households.
The Rural Water and Wastewater Grants and Loans would receive $717 million, an increase of $100 million over the 2021 enacted level.
Mackey said the overall budget request has “aggressive increases to a number of programs that are important to counties.”
“While I think these are important signals as to where the president would like to go, and while I think we can expect to see more money for nondefense discretionary spending now that the budget caps have expired, I don’t know that Congress is going to say we are going to do the full $759 billion,” Mackey cautioned.
Biden’s request calls for a 16% increase in federal spending in addition to the trillions of dollars in emergency approved so far to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp economic downturn that it caused.
OMB Acting Director Shalandra Young described the summary as “the administration’s proposal for topline FY 2022 discretionary funding.”
In a letter Friday to top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate appropriations and budget committees, Young said the failure to flesh out a complete budget proposal at this point “is typical in a transition year.”
The five most recent presidents -- George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump -- have each chosen to leave the budget submission to his successor, according to the Congressional Research Service.
House and Senate appropriations committees are already holding hearings on the 2022 budget for various federal departments.
But it’s doubtful that Congress will adopt a complete fiscal 2022 budget by the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year.
Congress is likely to amend the current 2021 budget resolution under a process called reconciliation in order to pass a massive infrastructure package in the Senate by a 51-vote simple majority, delaying the enactment of the 2022 budget resolution that will set spending limits for appropriators.
In addition, the debt limit expires in August, adding another wrinkle to negotiations on the 2022 budget.
Mackey said Congress might opt to pass a so-called minibus containing a few of the 12 annual spending bills while continuing spending levels for the others at the same 2021 level.
