On June 30, Congress cleared the conference report for the FY2001 military construction spending bill (H.R. 4425/S. 2551), making it the first FY2001 appropriations bill to reach the President’s desk. The House on June 29 approved the conference report by a vote of 306-110. The Senate approved the conference report by unanimous consent on June 30.
The military construction conference report became the vehicle for FY2000 emergency supplemental funding. The House passed a stand-alone supplemental spending bill (H.R. 3908) on March 30; however, the Senate never considered a similar bill (see The Source, 3/31/00). As a result, the FY2001 military construction spending bill includes $11.2 billion in FY2000 emergency spending. The majority of the funding will be spent on peacekeeping operations in Kosovo, anti-drug efforts in Colombia, and disaster assistance for flood and wildfire damage in the United States.
As approved by the House, foster care and adoption assistance would receive $35 million in FY2000 supplemental funding, bringing total funding for FY2000 to $140 million. The conference report does not include a House-passed provision that would have transferred $20 million from the Adolescent Family Life Act to the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant for abstinence education programs.
Overall, in FY2001 the bill would provide $3.6 billion for family housing, a $6 million decrease from last year, but the same amount provided in both the House and Senate bills. Under the final measure, child development centers would receive $43 million in FY2001, the same amount approved by the House. Child development centers received $22 million in FY2000. Additionally, the conference report includes House committee report language directing the Department of Defense to report to Congress on how it plans to provide an additional 25,000 child care spaces over the next five years.
The bill was signed into law (P.L. 106-246) on July 13.
