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HEADLINE: The Winners

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Health and Human Services: The National Institutes of Health emerged, as expected, the biggest winner within HHS, as the budget proposed a $ 2.75 billion -- or 13.5 percent -- increase that would bring its budget to $ 23.1 billion.

The increase will allow NIH to support 34,000 research grants, including more than 9,000 new and competing grants. Some of the new wealth will go to vastly increase funding for the Office of Research on Women's Health, by $ 28 million to about $ 50 million; boost spending at the new National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities to $ 158 million from $ 132 million (a 20 percent increase); and increase overall spending on AIDS research by 11.5 percent to $ 2.5 billion, to be distributed through various institutes. And NIH will spend $ 42 million to develop smallpox and anthrax vaccines as part of a Clinton anti-bioterrorism initiative administered jointly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Community health centers, nonprofit organizations that treat largely uninsured patients in urban and rural communities, are proving popular with Bush. In the HHS budget, they would get $ 124 million more next year, bringing their total federal subsidies to $ 1.3 billion. The administration says the increase could pay for 100 new centers and the expansion of 100 existing ones.

Justice: Big winners include the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which would receive a $ 240 million surge in funding to decrease the backlog of immigration applications and enhance enforcement. Much of that would be paid for by a $ 1 a ticket increase paid by airline travelers and a new $ 3 fee paid by vacationers on cruise ships.

Justice Department programs to fight gun violence and increase the use of safety locks would receive $ 154 million in new funding. Officials said efforts to combat violence against women would get $ 100 million in new money.

IRS: The Internal Revenue Service would get a 6.6 percent increase, to $ 9.422 billion. The budget includes $ 400 million to continue modernization of IRS's outdated computer systems.

Commerce: The Bureau of Economic Analysis, which measures the nation's economy, would get an 18 percent increase to ensure that economic indicators "accurately measure the economy as it undergoes the rapid changes brought by such developments as increased electronic commerce and expanded use of stock options."

Agriculture: USDA's Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service will benefit from the scare over the spread of "mad cow" and hoof-and-mouth disease. The budget includes an extra $ 32.1 million to hire about 350 more inspection personnel at U.S. airports and docks to detect infected livestock.

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman said she was "making sure we've got the resources available . . . to insure we don't get this devastating disease in this country."

Energy: Fulfilling a Bush campaign pledge, the department budget increases funding to help low-income families and the elderly save money on fuel bills by adding insulation and upgrading windows and furnaces. The budget would increase by $ 120 million, to $ 273 million, a 79 percent increase.

The new budget would also increase spending for research on cleaner combustion of coal, designed to keep coal-fired power plants available to meet electric power shortages. The budget adds $ 150 million in the program, whose costs are shared by industry.

Transportation: The major programs of the Transportation Department -- aviation, highways, mass transit and the Coast Guard -- were winners in this year's budget proposal. The administration requested the full authorized funding for highway and aviation.

Defense: The clearest winners are military personnel, beneficiaries of Bush's promise to improve their pay and quality of life. The budget includes an additional $ 385 million to provide full funding of a 4.6 percent across the board military pay raise. It also contains an extra $ 1 billion for pay incentives. There is another $ 400 million in new spending to improve military housing, and $ 3.9 billion for enhanced health-care benefits for retirees and their families that were mandated by Congress.

The budget also includes a $ 2.6 billion boost in research and development funding, including an unspecified amount on the national missile defense system that Bush has promised to deploy.

Veterans: The budget includes a $ 1 billion increase in discretionary spending and the bulk of the added money will go into the veterans' health care system.

EPA: The budget includes $ 25 million in new grants to the states to improve enforcement efforts and $ 25 million more to improve states' environmental assessment and information systems.

Education: The Education Department would receive $ 44.5 billion in discretionary funds under the Bush plan, which the administration called an 11.5 percent increase. Democrats said the increase was closer to 6 percent. Winners include the Title I program, which sends money to low-income school districts -- the president requested $ 9 billion, an increase of $ 459 million. Bush would also triple spending on reading programs to $ 900 million, part of his plan to make sure every child can read by third grade. The budget also earmarks $ 320 million to help states pay for proposed reading and math assessments for children in grades 3 to 8.

State: The budget proposed more than doubling aid to Colombia's Andean neighbors to prevent that country's drug war from spilling over their borders. The Andean Counterdrug Initiative would build on Plan Colombia, a military and police offensive against drug crops protected by guerrillas in southern Colombia, providing a further $ 731 million for fighting the cocaine and heroin trade in South America.

Labor: The Department of Labor's office of Disability Employment Policy, formed last year to help bring more people with disabilities into the work force, would double its budget to $ 40.6 million.

The office is part of Bush's New Freedom Initiative. The Small Business Administration budget, for example, included $ 5 million to help small businesses comply with the American With Disabilities Act.

NASA: Space launch research is a winner, with a $ 200 million increase for development of a cheaper, safer way to carry people and cargo into space. There is $ 4.5 billion for launch technology research over the next five years. For Mars missions, the budget also assumes an increase in future years, estimated to be on the order of a few hundred million dollars. Exact amounts are unclear.

National Science Foundation: Bush's new Math and Science Partnerships Initiative, part of the "No Child Left Behind" plan to improve education from kindergarten through 12th grade, includes $ 90 million in new funds and $ 110 million redirected from existing NSF education activities.

Housing and Urban Development: In keeping with the administration's emphasis on increasing home ownership and fulfilling a Bush campaign pledge, the budget includes $ 200 million to help 130,000 low-income families with down-payment assistance.

The budget also would fund an additional 34,000 vouchers to help low-income families find affordable apartments. The cost: $ 197 million. Housing advocates note that 79,000 new vouchers were funded this year.

Interior: The budget boosts funding for replacing aging infrastructure in national parks. It also includes about $ 30 million to expand "energy resource" activities on federal lands -- including planning funds for potential oil leases at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.



LOAD-DATE: April 10, 2001