VIP Series 12-01
February 15, 2012
Summary 


The VIP Series
focuses on federal grant-in-aid programs in the FFIS database that are of most importance to states. While there are hundreds of grant-in-aid programs—FFIS currently tracks about 215—the lion’s share of federal aid is contained in relatively few grants. Most of those grants are reported here.

This edition of The VIP Series is intended to provide states with federal fiscal year (FY) 2013 funding estimates for major grant programs based on the president’s budget, which was released on February 13, 2012. As part of his proposal, the president included recommendations that would avert the budget sequestration process mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA, P.L. 112-25). Absent congressional approval of some such measures, the BCA calls for an across-the-board sequester of FY 2013 spending beginning in January 2013. (This document estimates hypothetical FY 2013 funding levels under a sequester.) Many observers believe that the president’s signal that he wants to avoid sequester will lead to serious deficit-reduction negotiations, probably during a lame duck session of Congress convened after the November 2012 elections.

Many of the programs included in this summary received funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Funding provided under ARRA is not included in the tables here unless noted. Moreover, the numbers reported here are preliminary and will be revised in the regular database update that will be completed in the coming weeks.