Agency by agency look at Bush's budget

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Here are details of President Bush's budget for the major federal agencies. Spending is the total amount proposed for the agency in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The percentage change is based on 2007 spending estimated by the Bush administration; 2007 spending levels for most federal agencies still have not been enacted by Congress. Mandatory spending is the amount required by programs, like Medicare and Food Stamps, where the government is legally bound to make payments to all eligible recipients.

Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development

Spending: $36.2 billion

Percentage Change from 2007: +7.1 percent

Mandatory Spending: $949 million

Highlights:

_Would remove limits on the number of housing vouchers distributed under the Section 8 program, which provides housing assistance to more than 2 million low-income families.

HUD estimates that as many 180,000 additional aid payments could be issued if the limits are removed.

_Would encourage local housing agencies to issue more Section 8 vouchers by linking the size of their administrative budgets to the number of vouchers they distribute.

Under the current voucher system, local housing agencies can distribute only a set number of vouchers, even if they have enough money to issue more. Some agencies have more money than they need for their allotted vouchers, while other agencies don't have enough money to pay for all of their allotted vouchers.

Democrats in Congress have called for rewriting the distribution formula to address the inequities.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank, estimates that the current distribution formula has resulted in the loss of about 150,000 vouchers since 2004.

The center estimates that it would cost about $16.5 billion in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 to fully fund all the authorized Section 8 vouchers. The Bush administration proposed spending $16 billion on the program.

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Agency: Department of the Treasury

Spending: $525.9 billion

Percentage change from 2007: +6.9 percent

Mandatory Spending: $513.8 billion

Highlights:

? The biggest chunk of the department's mandatory spending — roughly $470 billion — goes to pay interest on the national debt, including obligations related to Social Security.

? The bulk of the department's $12.1 billion in discretionary spending goes to the Internal Revenue Service, which would receive $11.1 billion, slightly more than the administration estimates the IRS will spend in 2007. To step up IRS' efforts to catch tax scofflaws and crack down on dubious tax schemes, the budget would increase enforcement funding by $440 million, That includes $291 million for new enforcement initiatives. An administration priority is reducing the "tax gap," which is the difference between taxes paid and taxes owed. That gap accounts for an estimated $290 billion a year in lost revenue.

? The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network would receive $86 million, up from the $71 million the administration estimates the agency will spend this year. The agency is responsible for making sure the nation's financial system isn't abused by terrorist financiers, drug dealers and other criminals.

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Agency: Department of Justice

Spending: $23.3 billion

Percentage change from 2006: +2.2 percent

Mandatory Spending: $2.9 billion

Highlights:

_Would boost funding for staff at the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, all which are facing hiring freezes or slowdowns.

_Asks for an additional $257 million for counterterror investigations -- an increase of 13 percent -- and $7 million more for criminal cases investigated by the FBI. Shifts $78 million to the department's newly created National Security Division, which prosecutes terror and espionage crimes.

_Cuts grant money for community policing and helping troubled juveniles and abused women, but adds $200 million to gangs, drugs, illegal gun activity and other violent crime in cities.

Prosecutors in the 94 U.S. attorneys' offices nationwide would see more money — about $171 million — to help with a 4 percent workload increase over the last year. Additionally, Justice Department lawyers who manage hundred of thousands of applications annually for pardons and immigration appeals would get about $31 million more.

The budget would also shave $13 million, or about 15 percent, from the department's information-sharing systems, and cut, by $7 million, a program that compensates people who have been exposed to radiation from working with, mining or transporting nuclear materials.

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source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070205/ap_on_go_pr_wh/budget_glance_agencies [link]