Aligning Resources with Results: President's FY 2013 Budget Proposal

On Monday, President Obama released his FY 2013 Budget. Each year, the president’s budget plays an important role in the national budget process as it outlines the president’s policy priorities and recommendations for federal spending. Proposing major funding in areas such as education, healthcare, workforce training and community revitalization, President Obama has demonstrated his commitment to helping our nation’s most vulnerable children, families and communities succeed in the midst of a difficult economic climate. Congress now has the opportunity to review the President’s proposed budget and recommend changes before drafting the Congressional Budget Resolution, which will become the nation’s FY 2013 budget. The FY 2013 budget will go into effect in October 2012.

As Congress prepares to review the president’s proposed budget, it is important to keep in mind that communities can play a major role in advocating for policies and programs that improve the well-being of residents. In our new publication, Aligning Resources with Results: How Communities and Policymakers Collaborated to Create a National Program, we highlight the collaboration between community organizations in Philadelphia with state and local policymakers. The initiative, the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, provided funding for 88 fresh-food retail projects in 34 Pennsylvania counties, creating or preserving more than 5,000 jobs and improving access to healthy food for more than half a million Pennsylvania residents. The success of this collaboration led to a national budget initiative, the National Healthy Food Financing Initiative, aimed at improving the health of children across the country by providing access to fresh food. The President’s FY 2013 budget has proposed $25 million from the Department of Treasury and $10 million from the Department of Health and Human Services in funding for the National Healthy Food Financing Initiative.

For more information about the federal budget process, please review our “Federal Budget Blog Series.” CSSP’s Policy for Results blog also has information and links to resources about the federal budget.

Stay tuned to our blog for more updates on and analyses of the President’s Proposed FY 2013 Budget.