House and Senate Committees Preserve VITA Funding for 2012
June 28th, 2012
According to the National Community Tax Coalition, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have developed financial services appropriations bills that would keep federal grant funding for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs at its current level of $12 million for FY 2012. While key lawmakers acknowledged that this is far below the level needed, it’s still a significant victory in a year when the Budget Control Act (BCA) established a cap on overall annual appropriations that is lower than appropriations were in FY 2011.
While this is good news, it is also important to note that VITA programs are by no means assured of receiving this level of funding. First, the bills still must go through floor votes, conferencing and final passage, and the funding level could change considerably by the time the bills are adopted by both chambers. Second, even the funding level in the final bills may not really be final because, unless Congress acts, the automatic across the board budget cuts (through a process called sequestration) that were also included in the BCA will reduce this amount by about 8.4% starting in January of 2013.
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