How do I Respond to the Administration?

I am struggling with the question of how do we deal with the Obama Administration in regard to our programs. What do we say to the Administration if their budget numbers are bad for Community Action? This is really is a quandary for me. It is something I am wrestling with at the moment. There are some very good people at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who are involved with our program. These are people I really like and respect. How do I sit down with them and have a conversation about their proposed initiatives which I believe are not good for our network? What do I say when the Administration has basically said ours is a network they can do without?

I am not predicting with 100% accuracy that the Administration’s budget request for 2013 will eliminate CSBG funding but looking at their position and stance last year, there is not a lot of room for optimism in my forecasting. Ahead of us is a much more competitive and difficult funding environment.

I am really wrestling with what to say to the Administration.  After the State of the Union last year and after the Administration came out with their budget last year, I was invited to go to meetings and to sit down with HHS. I was conflicted about it last year and I am still really conflicted about it. On the one hand, I view the Administration as having a total lack of confidence in our programs. I view the budget cuts as the end of the discussion. If that is the case, I need to prepare to battle in Congress. On the other hand, I really like many of the people working within HHS. I know they have been dealt a very difficult hand and I am really torn about not working with them. I continue to debate my response to their invitations but I am leaning heavily toward focusing on Congress. I am not comfortable intellectually with my position within this situation.

I know one of the issues that will be discussed in these meetings is accreditation. I know another discussion topic will be performance. These are controversial issues. HHS wants our network to make accommodations and yet I see no contribution to the network on our behalf. To the contrary, I understand their message to us is that Community Action is not an integral program to the priorities of the Administration. That is a tough statement.

I have been thinking about the benefits and the purpose of my participation in these meetings. I feel one purpose may be to gain my agreement to introducing competition as a means towards distributing an anticipated scarcity of CSBG dollars. I sense these meetings may result in potentially opening a pathway towards dramatically reducing the network. I am not comfortable with the back door method of introducing policies that I believe may harm our network. I worry about not participating in these meetings, though, but I am not sure of a benefit.