This blog was prepared by United Way Worldwide for its member organizations

In the budget that has been approved by Congress, and is expected to be signed by President Obama, we are pleased to share that the majority of programs that United Way has prioritized have stayed intact or even increased in funding. Given the conomic and political landscape, this is good news. Please see below for highlights of FY2012 program funding in our building block areas. Note: There is an additional 0.189 percent across the board cut to all programs not reflected in these numbers.

INCOME

• Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP): $120 million – the same as FY2011. (A special thank you to the nearly 700 advocates who spoke up for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program in the past couple of weeks. Given the 40% cut xperienced last year, we consider it a win that the EFSP maintained funding).
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) matching grants: $12 million – the same as FY2011
• Workforce Investment Act (WIA) adult training, youth training and dislocated worker grants: $2.61 billion – down $55 million (2.07%) from FY2011
• Workforce Innovation Fund (created last year with the input from several United Ways and written testimony from United Way Worldwide): $50 million – down $75 million from FY2011
• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): $3.48 billion – down $1.22 billion from FY2011
• Individual Development Account Initiative: $19.91 million – down $4.07 million from FY 2011
• Child Care and Development Block Grant: $2.28 billion – up $60 million from FY2011
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): $80.4 billion – up $15.19 billion from FY2011 (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)
• Section 8 Housing Vouchers: $17.24 billion – up $474.6 million from FY 2011  (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)
• Community Development Block Grant: $3.3 billion – down $192.9 million from FY2011 (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)

HEALTH

• Healthy Start: $104.78 million – up $415 million from FY2011
• Medicaid total grants to states: $184.28 billion – up $11.14 billion from FY2011
• Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: $760.7 million – down $53.29 million from FY2011
• Women, Infants and Children (WIC): $6.6 billion – down $130 million from FY2011 (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)
• Child Nutrition Programs: $18.15 billion – up $830 million from FY2011 (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)
• Community Health Centers: $1.58 billion – the same as FY2011
• Maternal and Child Health Block Grant: $646.32 million – down $10 million from FY2011

EDUCATION

• Head Start: Funded at $8 billion – $424 million above FY 2011
• Title I Grants: Funded at $14.5 billion – $60 million above FY 2011
• Special Education programs: Funded at $11.6 billion – an increase of $100 million above FY 2011
• School Improvement Grants (SIG): Funded at $534.6 million
• Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Program: Funded at $160 million – this is a restoration from FY 2011
• Investing in Innovation Fund (i3): Funded at $149.7 million
• Race to the Top: Funded at $550 million, and continues to allow those funds to be used for the Early Learning Challenge competition
• 21^st Century Community Learning Centers: Funded at $1.151 billion
• Promise Neighborhoods Initiative: Funded at $60 million – $30 million above FY 2011