EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL

• Unemployment Down to 2.6%: The unemployment rate in Nebraska has declined from 2.8% to 2.6% since 1993.
• 138,400 New Jobs: 138,400 new jobs have been created in Nebraska since 1993 -- an average of 19,539 per year, compared to an average of just 13,125 jobs per year in the previous administration.
• 132,100 New Private Sector Jobs: Since 1993, 132,100 new private sector jobs have been created—an average of 18,649 jobs per year, compared to an average of just 10,700 private sector jobs per year in the previous administration.
• 15,400 New Manufacturing Jobs: 15,400 manufacturing jobs have been created in Nebraska since 1993 -- an average of 2,174 jobs per year. In contrast, an average of only 1,850 manufacturing jobs were created each year during the previous administration.
• 15,000 New Construction Jobs: 15,000 construction jobs have been created in Nebraska since 1993 -- an average of 2,118 jobs per year. In contrast, an average of only 775 construction jobs were created each year during the previous administration.
• 77,000 Have Received a Raise: Approximately 29,000 Nebraska workers benefited from an increase in the minimum wage—from $4.25 to $4.75 -- on October 1, 1996. They, along with about 48,000 others received an additional raise—from $4.75 to $5.15 -- on September 1, 1997.
• Business Failures Down 8.2% Per Year: Business failures have dropped an average of 8.2% per year since 1993, after increasing 23.9% per year during the previous administration. [Oct 98 data]
• A $500 Child Tax Credit to Help Families Raising Children: To help make it easier for families to raise their children, the balanced budget included a $500 per-child tax credit for children under 17. Thanks to President Clinton, the Balanced Budget delivers a child tax credit to 187,000 families in Nebraska.
• Homeownership Has Increased in Nebraska: Homeownership in Nebraska has increased from 68.0% to 70.97% since 1993.
• Home Building Up 4.6%: Home building has increased by an average of 4.6% per year since 1993, after falling by over 0.2% per year during the previous 12 years.
• Over $25,000 of Reduced Federal Debt for Every Family of Four: The national debt will be $1.7 trillion lower in FY99 than projected in 1993 -- that's $25,000 less debt for each family of four in Nebraska this year.

EXPANDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION

• Over 4,500 Children in Head Start: 4,518 Nebraska children were enrolled in Head Start in 1999. In FY00, Nebraska will receive $26 million in Head Start funding, an increase of $12.9 million over 1993.
• More High-Quality Teachers With Smaller Classes for Nebraska's Schools: Thanks to the Class Size Reduction Initiative, Nebraska received $5.8 million in 1999 to hire about 150 new, well-prepared public school teachers and reduce class size in the early grades. President Clinton secured funding for a second installment of the plan, giving Nebraska an additional $6.3 million in 2000.
• $2.5 Million in Goals 2000 Funding: This year [FY00], Nebraska receives $2.5 million in Goals 2000 funding. This money is used to raise academic achievement by raising academic standards, increasing parental and community involvement in education, expanding the use of computers and technology in classrooms, and supporting high-quality teacher professional development. [Education Department, 12/3/99]
• $2.1 Million for Technology Literacy: This year [FY00], Nebraska receives $2.1 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund which helps communities and the private sector ensure that every student is equipped with the computer literacy skills needed for the 21st century.
• $32.7 Million for Students Most in Need: Nebraska receives $32.7 million in Title I Grants (to Local Educational Agencies) providing extra help in the basics for students most in need, particularly communities and schools with high concentrations of children in low-income families [FY00]. This includes over $558,000 in accountability grants, to help states and school districts turn around the worst performing schools and hold them accountable for results.
• $47.5 Million in Pell Grants: This year [FY00], Nebraska will receive $47.5 million in Pell Grants for low-income students going to college, benefiting 25,661 Nebraska students.
• Expanded Work-Study To Help More Students Work Their Way Through College: The FY00 budget includes a significant expansion of the Federal Work Study program. Nebraska will receive $5.5 million in Work-Study funding in 2000 to help Nebraska students work their way through college.
• Over 540 Have Served in Nebraska through AmeriCorps: Since the National Service program began in 1993, 545 AmeriCorps participants have earned money for college while working in Nebraska's schools, hospitals, neighborhoods or parks. [through 2/00]
• Tuition Tax Credits in Balanced Budget Open the Doors of College and Promote Lifelong Learning: The balanced budget included both President Clinton's $1,500 HOPE Scholarship to help make the first two years of college as universal as a high school diploma and a Lifetime Learning Tax Credit for college juniors, seniors, graduate students and working Americans pursuing lifelong learning to upgrade their skills. This 20% tax credit will be applied to the first $5,000 of tuition and fees through 2002 and to the first $10,000 thereafter. 55,000 students in Nebraska will receive a HOPE Scholarship tax credit of up to $1,500. 67,000 students in Nebraska will receive the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit.
• Expanded Job Training to Nebraska's Dislocated Workers: Thanks to President Clinton, the FY99 budget includes a significant expansion in the dislocated worker program. Nebraska will receive $2 million in 1999 to help 1,210 of Nebraska's dislocated workers get the training and reemployment services they need to return to work as quickly as possible.

FIGHTING CRIME AND VIOLENCE

• Crime Falls in Lincoln: Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. Since 1992, serious crime, as indicated by the crime index, has fallen 4% in Lincoln. [1992 and 1997 Uniform Crime Reports]
• 595 More Police: The President's 1994 Crime Bill has funded 595 new police officers to date in communities across Nebraska. [through 1/00]
• Reducing Crime with Drug Courts: Working to reduce drug-related crime in Nebraska, the Clinton Administration has awarded Drug Court grants to the communities of Macy, Omaha and Papillion. Drug courts use the coercive power of the criminal justice system to combine drug testing, sanctions, supervision and treatment to push nonviolent, drug-abusing offenders to stop using drugs and committing crimes.
• Nearly $7.1 Million to Combat Domestic Violence: Through the Violence Against Women Act, Nebraska has received nearly $7.1 million in federal funds since FY95 to establish more women's shelters and bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims' services. [through FY99]
• $400,000 in Grants for Battered Women and Children: In FY99, Nebraska received $400,000 in HHS's Family Violence Prevention Program grants to assist women and children fleeing domestic abuse.
• $2.2 Million to Keep Drugs & Violence Out of Nebraska Schools: Nebraska receives $2.2 million in FY00 for the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program, which invests in school security and drug prevention programs.

MOVING NEBRASKA RESIDENTS FROM WELFARE TO WORK:

• 15,827 Fewer People on Welfare: There are 15,827 fewer people on welfare in Nebraska now than there were at the beginning of 1993 -- a 33% decrease. [through 6/99]
• Child Support Collections Up 58%: Child support collections have increased by $37 million—or 58% -- in Nebraska since FY92. [through FY98]
• Encouraging Responsible Choices—Preventing Teen Pregnancy in Nebraska: Since 1993, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have supported innovative and promising teen pregnancy prevention strategies, with significant components of the strategy becoming law in the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act. The law requires unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live at home or in a supervised setting; encourages "second chance homes" to provide teen parents with the skills and support they need; and provides $50 million a year in new funding for state abstinence education activities. Efforts are making a difference, adolescent pregnancy rates and teen abortion rates are declining. And between 1991 and 1997, teen birth rates declined 12.3% in Nebraska.
• $14.2 Million for Nebraska Welfare-to-Work: In 1998 and 1999, Nebraska received a total of $7.8 million in Federal welfare-to-work state formula grants (the state matched $3.9 million in funding), helping Nebraska welfare recipients get and keep jobs. In 1999, $2.5 million in competitive grants were awarded to support innovative welfare-to-work strategies. In 1998, Native American tribes in Nebraska received $56,000 in Federal funding. Part of the President's comprehensive efforts to move recipients from welfare to work, this funding was included in the $3 billion welfare to work fund in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.

INVESTING IN NEBRASKA'S HEALTH

• Health Care for Over 9,700 Uninsured Nebraska Children: In 1997, President Clinton passed the largest single investment in health care for children since 1965 -- an unprecedented $24 billion over five years to cover as many as five million children throughout the nation. This investment guarantees the full range of benefits that children need to grow up strong and healthy. Two million children nationwide have health care coverage thanks to the President's plan, including 9,713 in Nebraska. [HHS, Health Care Financing Administration, FY99 SCHIP enrollment data]
• Helping Over 33,000 Nebraska Women and Children with WIC: The Clinton Administration is committed to full funding in the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). In FY99, Nebraska received $21 million in total WIC grant funding, helping 33,099 women, infants and children in need receive health and food assistance. [through 8/99]
• More Toddlers Are Being Immunized: As a result of the President's 1993 Childhood Immunization Initiative, childhood immunization rates have reached an historic high. According to the CDC, 90% or more of America's toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998 —surpassing the President's 1993 goal. In Nebraska in 1998, 95% of two-year olds received the vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; 89% received the vaccine for polio; 90% received the vaccine for measles, and 93% received the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria causing a form of meningitis.
• Funding for HIV/AIDS Assistance Programs: In FY 2000, Nebraska will receive $594,386 in Ryan White Title II formula grants. This funding provides people living with HIV and AIDS medical and support services. Also through the Ryan White Act, Nebraska will receive $769,249 for state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which help those without insurance obtain much needed prescription drugs. There has been a tenfold increase in ADAP funding in the last four years, up from $52 million in 1996 to $528 million in 2000. [HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration, 4/7/00]
• Tobacco Plan Will Cut Smoking and Premature Deaths by 41% in Nebraska: The Clinton Administration's tobacco proposal, combined with the recently enacted state tobacco settlements, will cut youth smoking and resulting premature deaths 41% in Nebraska by 2004. Between 2000 and 2004, 21,200 of Nebraska's youth will be kept from smoking and 6,800 will be spared a premature tobacco-related death. [Treasury Dept., 2/99]
• 740,000 Americans in Nebraska Cannot Be Assured They Have Patient Protections: Even if Nebraska enacted all the protections in the Patients' Bill of Rights, 740,000 people in Nebraska cannot be assured they have the comprehensive patient protections recommended by the President's Advisory Commission. This is because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) may preempt state-enacted protections. That is why the President has called on Congress to pass a federally enforceable patients' bill of rights so that everyone enrolled in managed care may have a basic set of protections. Notably, 340,000 Nebraska women are in ERISA health plans and are therefore not necessarily protected. Women are particularly vulnerable without these protections because they are greater users of health care services, they make three-quarters of the health care decisions for their families, and they have specific health care needs addressed by a patients' bill of rights.

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

• $7.7 Million in Safe Drinking Water Funding: This year [FY00], thanks to President Clinton, Nebraska will receive $7.7 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to provide low-interest loans to municipalities to build, improve, and prevent pollution of drinking water systems.
• Three Superfund Clean-ups in Nebraska: Since 1993, the EPA has completed toxic waste site clean-ups in Waverly, Norfolk and Lindsay. Not one site was cleaned up during the previous two administrations combined. [through 3/1/00]
• Revitalizing Brownfields Project in Omaha: As part of the Clinton-Gore Administration's efforts to clean up Brownfields, the EPA has awarded grants to Omaha, Nebraska for environmental clean-up and economic revitalization. This project is intended to jump-start local clean-up efforts by providing funds to return unproductive, abandoned, contaminated urban properties to productive use.

SPEARHEADING URBAN RENEWAL EFFORTS

• Revitalizing Nebraska's Communities: Omaha was designated an Enterprise Community and was awarded $3 million each to create more jobs, housing, and economic opportunity for area residents.

PROVIDING DISASTER RELIEF

• $161.5 Million in Federal Emergency Assistance: Since 1993, Nebraska has received $161.5 million in disaster relief. This includes $35 million for severe snow storms, rain and strong winds in 1998. Additionally, FEMA has provided Nebraska with $61.4 million in assistance to recover from the Midwest Floods of 1993. [FEMA, 2/29/00]

EXPANDING FUNDS FOR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT

• $782 Million in Federal Highway Aid: Since 1993, Nebraska has received $782 million in federal highway aid, including $5.5 million for emergency relief in response to natural disasters and $600,000 for scenic byways. These funds have helped generate 33,395 jobs. [through FY99]
• $80.5 Million in Aviation Funds: From FY93-FY99 Nebraska received $80.5 million in Airport Improvement Program funds to help build and renovate airports, and, when necessary, to provide funds for noise abatement to improve the quality of life for residents who live near airports.
• Over $60.4 Million in Transit Funds: Nebraska has received over $60.4 million in FTA funds since 1993.

---

Last Updated April 2000