The House and Senate are still trying to figure out how they will pass an airport bill this year. After three short-term extensions, the airport program expired on Aug. 6 when Congress recessed for the summer.

Resolution of this issue is very important to NACo members, since counties own a substantial number of the nation’s airports. The House has passed its bill, H.R. 1000, while the Senate, which has members concerned about budget implications of the airport program, has not acted on its legislation, S. 82.

There are several possible outcomes. The Senate could finally act on S. 82 and go to conference with the House. Another option is for the Senate to appoint conferees to S. 1467, a two-month extension measure it passed just prior to recess. The House then also passed S. 1467 and in place of the two-month extension, substituted its five-year bill and appointed conferees.

NACo is generally supportive of the House legislation that substantially expands the Airport Improvement Program, takes the Airport Trust Fund off budget, increases the Passenger Facility Charges from $3 to $6 and creates a small airport development program.

This deceptively simple sounding bill has tremendous implications for county governments. It would prohibit a county from imposing any of its ordinances, codes or regulations on a religious institution or an individual professing religious rights if the county law “burdens” the exercise of religion.

Such a “burden” could be imposed only if the county can prove – in federal court – that the law is for a compelling reason, and there is no less restrictive way of accomplishing the county’s purpose.

A section of the bill specifically targets local land use ordinances, and virtually prohibits a county from applying any zoning, building or safety codes, or environmental ordinances to a building that is affiliated with a religious group.

The bill passed the House overwhelmingly in July and is under consideration by the Senate. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a strong supporter of the House bill, could decide to introduce a similar bill in the Senate. If he does not, the measure will be on an even faster track since the House bill would go directly to the Senate floor for a vote, bypassing Senate committees.

A coalition of religious organizations has made passage of the bill its top priority this year, and they have been flooding Senate offices with examples of how they have been “persecuted” by cities and counties for attempting to site churches or hold religious services. Counties will need to present the other side of the story and educate senators quickly if we are to have any hope of stopping the legislation.

Targeted Medicare give-backs
In some good news for county health care facilities, a portion of the cuts to the Medicare program that were adopted in the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 are likely to be targeted for “give-backs” in the budget reconciliation process.

For months, Congress has been hearing complaints from hospitals, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and home health agencies about the dramatic cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates since the BBA ’97. According to these health care providers, unless some funding is restored, many providers could be forced to close.

In addition, the General Accounting Office has reported that Medicare spending has decreased much more than originally anticipated under the BBA. The pressure for the Congress to alleviate this situation increased with forecasts for a budget surplus.

Both the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health and the Senate Finance Committee have already begun looking at legislative help in the form of so-called givebacks.

The latest scenario would target increases in Medicare reimbursement rates to the areas that are experiencing the most severe problems and where the Medicare beneficiaries are at the most risk of losing access to services.

NACo is working in support of these targeted givebacks.

Disabled Workers Incentives Act
The Senate has already approved S. 331. The House Commerce Committee has approved H.R.1180, but the Ways and Means Committee has taken no action as yet due to the lack of offsets to fund the bill. H.R. 1180 has numerous cosponsors and wide bipartisan support, but offsets are required if the bill is to be passed. With the legislative calendar crowded with “must-pass” bills, H.R. 1180 is likely to drop down the agenda.

However, this bill is a good candidate for getting thrown into the budget negotiating process. If the Congress and the White House agree to break the budget caps, H.R. 1180/S. 331 could be folded into a final budget reconciliation bill. NACo supports the passage of H.R. 1180/S. 331.

Labor, HHS appropriations
The struggle facing Congress is the task of putting together a funding bill with adequate offsets, and one that does not break the budget caps.

At this point in the appropriations process, lawmakers have very few places left to look for offsets, leaving the oft-mentioned TANF (welfare) funds vulnerable – although President Clinton and congressional leaders have assured the governors that TANF funds will not be on the table.

Medicaid administration costs, Medicaid/TANF cost allocation, and tobacco settlement funds are other areas that could be targeted for offsets. NACo opposes all of these options.

The remaining option for the Congress is to break the budget caps. There has been some indication that the Senate Appropriations Committee is leaning toward breaking the caps, while the House Appropriations Committee has made clear its allegiance to maintaining them.

Appropriations
If the House has its way, HUD appropriations will be slashed significantly below their current level of $4.75 million. On the chopping block are: CDBG by $250 million; HOME by $20 million; Emergency Shelter Grant/Continuum of Care by $5 million; HOPWA by $10 million, HOPE VI, the distressed public housing program, by $50 million; and brownfields by $5 million.

On the legislative front, the Senate version of the Financial Modernization Act (S. 900) now in conference threatens the ability of housing and community advocates to challenge the mortgage lending practices of local banks.

The House measure, H.R. 10, maintains provisions from the Community Reinvestment Act that requires a satisfactory evaluation of a bank’s mortgage-lending practices before it could merge with another financial institution. The Senate bill strips away that provision.

Appropriations impasse
To date, only two of the 13 appropriations bills – military construction and legislative operations – have cleared Congress.

In what seems to be an even longer replay of previous years, the most contentious and problematic one is the appropriations bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor/HHS).

Many programs that are important to counties are vulnerable because of the budgetary constraints faced by appropriators. These include the Social Services Block Grant (Title XX), Welfare-to-Work, and Medicaid administrative costs.

At the heart of the problem are the spending caps imposed by the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. As a result, the House Labor/HHS subcommittee has been asked to cut $15 billion from its programs, and the Senate has to cut $8 billion.

Title XX is probably the most vulnerable one. Recently, there were rumors that the Senate subcommittee will reduce this program to $800 million. Currently, Title XX is funded at $1.9 billion. It is authorized at $2.3 billion.

Counties and states use this program to fund a variety of programs. A recent HHS study shows that 26 percent percent of the funds are used for child welfare, 24 percent for child care and 18 percent for services to the elderly, to name a few.

Some think that the $800 million cut is meant to highlight the appropriators’ problems so that the Senate will raise the caps when the bill reaches the floor. Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has already expressed his willingness to do just this, but it requires 60 votes.

The size of the required cuts is one of the reasons why the Labor/HHS bill seems to be moving even slower than usual. Although subcommittees had tentatively scheduled mark-ups for the first week after recess, they are expected to be postponed.

There is speculation that there will not be a final bill until after the fiscal year begins. Some think that instead of a final appropriations bill, Labor/HHS may end up as a one-year continuing resolution or a series of short-term ones.

Congress has gone around the budgetary constraints in other appropriations bills by declaring some of the spending an emergency.

This procedure for used in the Commerce, Justice, State and for the census. Whether a similar procedure might be used for Labor/HHS is unknown. Even if some of the funding is declared an emergency, it is unlikely that it will be enough to make up for the required reductions.

Juvenile justice and gun safety
Before the month of September is over, it would appear likely that a House-Senate conference committee will report out a final agreement on new juvenile justice legislation complete with modest gun safety requirements.

While gun safety remains the only serious obstacle facing the conferees in reaching an agreement, in the aftermath of the Los Angeles, Atlanta and Littleton shootings, there is growing evidence that public pressure will demand common sense gun safety protections.

The Senate has already approved a modest package of gun safety measures.

The two key leaders in the House – Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Speaker of the House – have privately declared their support for a key feature of the Senate bill, a three-day waiting period at gun shows.

Up until now, Hyde and Hastert have not sought to put any pressure on their House colleagues to adopt their views on gun safety, but this was likely to change as members met with their constituents back home during the August recess.

Local Law Enforcement Block Grant
Originally the House Subcommittee on Crime was planning to consider new authorizing legislation altering the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program immediately after action was completed on juvenile justice.

However, the whole process was delayed after gun safety legislation was folded into the Senate juvenile justice bill.

As a result, it is not clear whether new authorizing legislation will be considered this year or simply considered as part of modifications to the pending FY2000 State, Justice, Commerce Appropriations bill.

In the Senate, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has introduced a new bill (S. 899) that expands the purposes of the block grant but fails to alter the formula.

The bill, however, does for the first time require the attorney general of a given state to certify counties declared disparate in FY98 or before unless objective criteria needed for certification cannot be verified.

Appropriations
While the Senate Subcommittee on State, Justice, Commerce appropriations bill severely cut most of the state and local programs, the House Subcommittee has restored most of the cuts except for the COPS program.

One popular prediction is that the budget caps will be removed or renegotiated after President Clinton vetoes the original FY2000 appropriations bill. In any event, it would appear that appropriations would remain a central focus in the coming months.

In the face of serious cutbacks in the Senate, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies restored nearly all of the state and local appropriations cuts in the Senate bill.

The major exception was community policing, which was cut to $268 million, a decrease of $1.2 billion from FY99. The Senate, however, restored COPS funding to $495 million on the Senate floor.

(Contributing to this report were Bob Fogel, Sally McElroy, Donald Murray, Marilina Sanz, Diane Shea and Ralph Tabor, associate legislative directors, Diane Taylor, consultant and Beverly Schlotterbeck, County News editor.)