1990 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Reorganization of Federal Grants in the Reagan Years and the Backgrounds of It
| Project/Area Number |
63530054
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Public finance/Monetary economics
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| Research Institution | Tohoku Gakuin University |
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Principal Investigator |
OKAMOTO Hideo Tohoku Gakuin University, Department of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (40133920)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1988 – 1989
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| Keywords | Block grant / Categorical grant / Reconciliation process |
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| Research Abstract |
Federal grants to states and local governments began to fall off at the end of the Carter period. We attribute this reason to the shift in the country towards towards a more conservative mood. The Reagan Administration accelerated downward trends in federal aid spending in a strong conservative mood and kept this level during his term. Programs targeted for the deepest cut the Reministration were services at the core of Great Society.
The Reagan block grant proposals were so bold that prospects for enactment of them seemed very dim. But these expectations were dramatically reversed by the passage of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981. The Reconciliation process allowed the issue to be framed in the president's terms. Key decisions about program structure were removed from the arena of individual committees, dominated by categorical grant sponsors and beneficiaries, and placed before Congress and the country as a whole. The Reconciliation also played an important role for cutting down federal budget, especially f deral grants on a large scale.
Reagan Administration succeeded in grant reform by this new budget procedures. But these successes were never repeated during his term. The reason was that Congress had stronger partisan and ideological suspicions of block grant objectives.
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