Community Services Block Grants (CSBG): Funding and Reauthorization

Publication Date: July 2007

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Social conditions

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Abstract:

Community Services Block Grants (CSBG), administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribes for distribution to local agencies to reduce poverty. Small related programs -- Community Economic Development, Rural Community Facilities, Job Opportunities for Low-Income Individuals (JOLI), and Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) -- also provide grants for anti-poverty efforts. CSBG and some of these related activities trace their history to the War on Poverty of the 1960s.

The Bush Administration has proposed for the last three years (including in the most recent budget request for FY2008) to eliminate funding for CSBG, arguing that the program does not award grants competitively or hold grantees accountable for program results. The Administration also has proposed to end funding for related activities (with the exception of IDAs), on the rationale that these activities lack performance measures. Nonetheless, CSBG and related activities are currently funded at FY2006 levels through FY2007, under a government-wide continuing resolution (P.L. 110-5, H.J.Res. 20). Recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) faulted HHS for weak oversight of CSBG and recommended more focused monitoring of states and targeting of technical assistance funds (GAO-06627).

In response to the Administration's FY2007 request to zero out the CSBG, the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved a one-third reduction in funding for the block grant. The full Appropriations Committee subsequently boosted this amount by $19 million, approving $449 million for the CSBG, compared to $630 million in FY2006. The House committee would have maintained Community Economic Development, Rural Community Facilities, and IDAs at FY2006 levels but, as requested, would have ended funding for JOLI (H.R. 5647, 109th Congress). The Senate Appropriations Committee would have funded CSBG and related activities (including JOLI) at their full FY2006 levels (S. 3708, 109th Congress). No final action occurred in the 109th Congress on FY2007 appropriations; hence the need for a full-year continuing resolution.

In its FY2006 budget, the Administration also had proposed to eliminate CSBG, but wanted to consolidate its purposes and some funding in a Strengthening America's Communities Initiative (SACI) at the Commerce Department. Congress rejected this proposal, and in both its FY2007 and FY2008 budgets, the Administration has proposed to eliminate CSBG and related activities altogether.

Although Congress has continued to provide funding, authorization for CSBG and related activities expired with FY2003. The House and Senate each passed reauthorizations in the 108th Congress; similar legislation was introduced in the 109th (H.R. 341), but saw no action. The bills were intended to improve program quality and accountability, establish new activities, and improve monitoring and fiscal controls. This report will be updated to track legislative and appropriations activity.