By Grant Williams

Washington

The $3.8-trillion federal budget that President Obama has proposed for 2011 seems to avoid major cuts in many social-service programs and adds money to some.

For example, the president would increase spending on Head Start and Early Head Start, which help children. Mr. Obama wants an additional $989-million for the programs in fiscal 2011, an increase of more than 13 percent, in order to continue to serve 64,000 additional children and families that are covered by the economic-stimulus law that was enacted last year.

In addition, the president would provide $2.5-billion for the emergency fund of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which would help pay for increased spending on cash assistance and employment-related services, including subsidized jobs.

Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said an early review of the numbers shows good support for programs for families with low incomes. “In terms of the kinds of concerns that the nonprofit sector addresses, given the difficult fiscal environment, the budget does pretty well,” he said.

Mr. Greenstein said that some people wrongly thought that Mr. Obama’s announcement last week of a proposed three-year freeze on parts of domestic spending “meant that every single social program would be frozen. That was never what it meant. And now that the budget is out, it looks to us like, by and large, programs for people in the greatest need held their own and in the aggregate were not cut and maybe went up a bit.”

Increase for 'Promise Neighborhoods’

Among items in Mr. Obama’s budget of interest to nonprofit groups:

• $210-million would be spent to expand the new Promise Neighborhoods program in the Department of Education. The program is designed to help nonprofit groups create poverty-fighting strategies that are modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, which provides a comprehensive set of educational, medical, and social services to children and their parents.

• The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities would each receive $161.3-million. For both organizations, the figure would represent a reduction of more than $6-million, or nearly 4 percent, from the amount Congress allocated for 2010. The figure of $161.3-million is the same amount sought for each organization by Mr. Obama a year ago. Americans for the Arts, a group that promotes the arts and arts education, said arts advocates will “now turn to Congress to continue its investment trend in providing additional appropriations for the NEA.“

• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would receive a $460-million, two-year advance appropriation for the 2013 fiscal year, which is a $15-million, or 3.4-percent, increase over the level for 2012. Public broadcasting gets money in advance, in part, because its programs take time to plan. However, the corporation said it was concerned that the Obama administration wants to eliminate a total of 62.5-million for public broadcasting programs in the Departments of Education, Commerce, and Agriculture.

Mr. Obama proposed that the Peace Corps receive about $446-million in 2011, an increase of 11.5 percent over the current year’s funding of $400-million.

Last year, the Peace Corps Association was disappointed in Mr. Obama’s request of about $373-million for 2010, and Congress eventually increased the final appropriation to $400-million for the current year.

“Given this tight budgetary environment, and the president’s announcement of a freeze on domestic discretionary programs, we’re very pleased to see this significant proposed increase” for 2011, said Kevin Quigley, president of the Peace Corps Association.

“It’s still not responsive to the demand out there from Americans who want to serve and countries who want Peace Corps,” Mr. Quigley said. “But the reality is to have a proposed 11.5 percent increase over current funding is, we think, a very signficant step and an affirmation of the president’s plan to grow the Peace Corps.”