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September 29, 1999
 

Honorable John M. Spratt, Jr.
Ranking Democratic Member
Committee on the Budget
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman:

I am pleased to respond to your letter of September 24, in which you requested information about the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor/HHS) appropriation bill and the current status of appropriation action for fiscal year 2000.

Including funding designated as emergencies and scorekeeping adjustments specified by the House Budget Committee, CBO estimates that the Labor/HHS bill, as reported out of the subcommittee in the House, would provide budget authority of $73.8 billion and result in outlays of $84.4 billion in fiscal year 2000. Without the scorekeeping adjustment of $929 million, estimated outlays would be $85.3 billion in 2000. The 302(b) allocations specified in House Report 106-288 include $73.0 billion in budget authority and $75.1 billion in outlays for that bill. Table 1 summarizes CBO's scoring of all the appropriation bills, based on their current status in the House of Representatives.

You also asked about the impact of a number of advance appropriations for fiscal year 2001 that are included in the Labor/HHS bill. Table 2 shows CBO's estimates of outlays in 2000 and 2001 for the programs that would receive such funding, compared with the estimated outlays that would result if all the funds were made available in 2000. For the most part, CBO's outlay estimates are identical in both cases.

Your staff also inquired about the impact of the provision that would shift $3 billion in funding for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families from 2000 to 2001. CBO estimates that this provision would reduce outlays in 2000 by $25 million and increase outlays in 2001 by the same amount.

Finally, you asked us to compare CBO's July 1 baseline estimate of discretionary outlays with the outlays that would result from the current status of House appropriation action. In making this comparison, you asked that we (1) include the subcommittee version of the Labor/HHS bill, (2) add emergency agriculture spending provided by the Senate, (3) exclude scorekeeping adjustments, (4) include outlays for "cap adjustment items," and (5) include all emergencies. Adding $7.5 billion in outlays for emergency farm aid to House action to date would produce total discretionary outlays of $612.1 billion in 2000, $32.3 billion more than CBO's baseline projection of $579.8 billion. The details of this calculation are shown as an addendum to Table 1.

I hope this information is helpful to you. If you need additional information or have any questions, the CBO staff contact is Priscilla Aycock.

Sincerely,

Dan L. Crippen
Director
 

Attachments

cc: Honorable John R. Kasich, Chairman; Honorable C. W. Bill Young, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations; Honorable David R. Obey, Ranking Member; Honorable John Edward Porter, Chairman, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, Committee on Appropriations