Yesterday a press conference was held about the federal budget reconciliation bill and its effects on Texas. Our reporter pal Jennifer was the only member of the press that attended, which is quite sad. These groups sent out a letter(pdf) to the Texas congressional delegation informing them of the wreck this bill will make of domestic issues such as health care for seniors, free lunch programs, student loans, and child support collection. If you subscribe to GalleryWatch you can read the official article, or you can click here to see it.

All we can say at this point is that thankfully the ANWR drilling addition has been removed from the House bill. At least if the mothers in our state can't get child support payments and our college students sink further and further into debt, we can take comfort in the fact that somewhere up north, the arctic environment remains without drilling. It's all about perspective, right? (Well that's not exactly true - the ANWR drilling bit still remains in the Senate version.)

From GalleryWatch:

Texas congressional delegation urged to vote down budget bill
Coalition highlights bill's devastating effect on vital social services
By: Jennifer Bendery ( 11/9/2005 )

AUSTIN (11/9/05) - On the eve of the U.S. House of Representatives bringing the federal budget reconciliation bill to the floor, a statewide coalition of research and advocacy groups issued a last-minute plea to the Texas congressional delegation to vote against the measure, alleging it slashes taxes for the wealthy while making deep cuts to vital services to Texas families.

The coalition, whose membership includes more than 430,000 Texans and helps to provide services to over five million people, on Wednesday released a letter it had sent to all 32 members of the Texas congressional delegation. The Texas AFL-CIO, Texans for Public Justice and the Texas State Teachers Association were among those who signed onto the letter, which indicates that $54 billion will be cut from programs that will affect families already struggling to make ends meet.

The letter outlines the programs and services directly affected by the $54 billion cut, which include health care for seniors and people with disabilities, food stamps, free and reduced-price school lunches, child support collection, student loans, and foster care and adoption assistance for abused and neglected children.

"Congress is pursuing significant cuts in all manner of safety net programs for low-income Americans," said Anne Dunkelberg of the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP). While the congressional leadership claims the spending cuts are to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, all of the cuts are being used to partially pay for tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest Americans, she said. "Indeed, even with these spending cuts, the proposed budget increases the deficit by more than $100 billion," said Dunkelberg.

She noted that the House version of the budget bill cuts three times as much from social services as the Senate version. The House version would cut $45 billion over ten years, she said. While CPPP had a strong objective prior to Hurricane Katrina to help preserve federal funds for social services, Dunkelberg said it is "staggering to imagine cutting funds" at a time when people are in serious need of assistance following the hurricane.

Daniel Becka, Director of Legislative Relations for the University of Texas at Austin (UT) Student Government, said the proposed budget threatens the availability of financial aid at a time when tuition deregulation and skyrocketing tuition rates are bearing down on college students. UT students currently face a five percent increase in tuition per semester without increases in federal aid, he said.

The proposed federal budget bill will cut student loans by more than $14 billion, which increases the costs for nearly 400,000 student borrowers in Texas, he said. The average student at UT is $16,000 in debt after four years in school, said Becka. Proposed budget cuts will increase that amount by $5,000. In addition, 7,000 UT students currently receiving Pell grants will face substantial cuts to their funding under the budget bill, he said.

Becka added that if the House bill passes, it will include the "largest cuts in higher education that Congress has ever made."

Proposed cuts to public education also raised concern among teacher advocacy groups. "We've watched the [Texas] legislature fail to improve our neighborhood schools and fix our school finance system for three years now," said Louis Malfaro, president of Education Austin, a Texas Federation of Teachers affiliate. "Now Congress wants to cut $110 million from elementary and secondary education funds."

Texas is particularly vulnerable as it is poised to receive so many minority and non-English-speaking students within its schools, said Malfaro. Not only will cuts to elementary education leave children less prepared for the workforce, but the bill also hurts continuing education programs by cutting $6.8 million in adult and vocational education funding, he said.

Malfaro noted that the budget reconciliation bill provides no money to reopen schools damaged by Hurricane Katrina. It is "amazing how Congress is so tone-deaf to the needs" of families, he said. Americans are dealing with the effects of war, flooding and food shortages while congressional leaders continue to cut taxes and focus on "privatization schemes that do nothing to address the real needs" of public schools, said Malfaro.

The groups also voiced opposition to language in the budget that would turn the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) into "an industrial oil field." Since there are not enough votes in the House to authorize drilling in ANWR, a legislator inserted related language into the budget bill to authorize the drilling, even though the "majority of Americans oppose" doing so, said Luke Metzger of TexPIRG.

Metzger said congressional leaders need to recognize that "it doesn't make sense to ruin one of our last wild places for little or no oil." In addition, that oil wouldn't get to U.S. consumers for ten years, he said, and would do "next to nothing to lower energy prices." Metzger pointed out that U.S. Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX) said drilling in ANWR likely would set a precedent for drilling in other public lands, such as Texas' Padre Island.

Metger noted that 26 congressional Republicans signed onto a letter objecting to the ANWR provisions in the budget bill. By Wednesday night, hours after the Texas coalition held its press conference, U.S. House Republican leaders stripped ANWR language from the bill. According to Bloomberg, the U.S. House Rules Committee approved the change, along with the removal of a provision to allow more offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Still, the working families of Texas "simply can't afford this budget," said Deece Eckstein, director of the Texas/Southwest Region Office of People For the American Way. The budget "gives tax breaks to millionaires while harming the college students, children, mothers and working families," he said. Eckstein called on legislators to pass a budget that "reflects the priorities of all the American people."

The last time the budget reconciliation bill reached the House floor, the entire Texas delegation voted against it, said Eckstein. He noted that the Washington Post recently reported that there are not enough votes in the House to pass the current budget reconciliation bill. But while the previous reconciliation bill failed to pass, it was by a slim margin, said Eckstein.