How OBAMA stimulus bill affects you

Part 2 Contd ....

 

Environment

The package includes $9.2 billion for environmental projects at the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. The money would be used to shutter abandoned mines on public lands, help local governments protect drinking water supplies, and erect energy-efficient visitor centers at wildlife refuges and national parks.

The Interior Department estimates that its portion of the work would generate about 100,000 jobs in the next two years.

Yet the plan will make only a dent in the backlog of cleanup projects facing the EPA and in the long list of chores at the country's national parks, refuges and other public lands.

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The plan sets aside $735 million for road repairs and maintenance at national parks. But that's just a fraction of the $9 billion worth of work waiting for funding.

At the EPA, the payout is $7.2 billion. The bulk of the money will help local communities and states repair and improve drinking water systems and fund projects that protect bays, rivers and other waterways used as sources of drinking water.

The rest of the EPA's cut -- $800 million -- will be used to clean up leaky gasoline storage tanks and the nation's hazardous waste sites.

Police

The stimulus bill includes plenty of green for those wearing blue.

The compromise bill doles out more than $3.7 billion for police programs, much of which is set aside for hiring new officers.

The law allocates $2 billion for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, a program that has funded drug task forces and such things as prisoner-rehabilitation and after-school programs.

An additional $1 billion is set aside to hire local police under the Community Oriented Policing Services program.

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The program, known as COPS grants, paid the salaries of many local police officers and was a "modest contributor" to the decline in crime in the 1990s, according to a 2005 government oversight report.

Both programs had been eliminated during the Bush administration.

The bill also includes $225 million for general criminal justice grants for programs such as youth mentoring, $225 million for Indian tribe law enforcement, $125 million for police in rural areas, $100 million for victims of crimes, $50 million to fight Internet crimes against children and $40 million in grants for law enforcement along the Mexican border.

Higher education

The maximum Pell Grant, which helps the lowest-income students attend college, will increase from its current limit of $4,731 to $5,350 starting July 1 and to $5,550 in 2010-11. That ill cover three-quarters of the average cost of a four-year college. An additional 800,000 students, for a total of about 7 million, should now qualify for Pell funding.

The stimulus also increases the tuition tax credit to $2,500 and makes it 40% refundable, so families that don't earn enough to pay income tax can still get up to $1,000 in extra tuition help.

In addition, computer expenses will now be an allowable expense for 529 college savings plans.

The final package cut $6 billion the House wanted to spend to kick-start building projects on college campuses. But parts of the $54 billion state stabilization fund -- with $39 billion set aside for education -- can be used for modernizing those facilities.

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There's also an estimated $15 billion for scientific research, much of which will go to universities. Funding for the National Institutes of Health includes $1.5 billion set aside for university research facilities.

Altogether, the package spends an estimated $32 billion on higher education.

The poor

More than 37 million Americans live in poverty, and the vast majority of the poor are in line for extra help under the giant stimulus package. Millions more could be kept from slipping into poverty by the economic lifeline.

People who get food stamps -- 30 million and growing -- will get more. People drawing unemployment checks -- nearly 5 million and growing -- would get an extra $25, and keep those checks coming longer. People who get Supplemental Security Income -- 7 million poor Americans who are elderly, blind or disabled -- would get a one-time extra payment of $250.

Many low-income Americans also are likely to benefit from a trifecta of tax credits: expansions to the existing child tax credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, and a new refundable tax credit for workers. Taken together, the three credits are expected to keep more than 2 million Americans from falling into poverty, including more than 800,000 children, according to the private Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The package also includes a $3 billion emergency fund to provide temporary assistance to needy families. In addition, cash-strapped states will get an infusion of $87 billion for Medicaid, the government health program for poor people, which should help avoid cuts to benefits for the needy.