House GOP leaders release list of spending cuts

WASHINGTON
— House Republican leaders unveiled a dramatic list of cuts Wednesday
for the remainder of fiscal 2011 — snaring a wide swath of programs and
grants, including law enforcement, NASA and welfare — as they prepare to uphold their campaign pledge to rein in domestic spending.

In presenting the outline, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.,
the chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said the list
was just a preview of the broader package of spending reductions his
committee is preparing for release Thursday, in advance of next week’s
floor debate and vote.

“Never before has Congress undertaken a
task of this magnitude,” Rogers said. The forthcoming cuts “will
represent the largest reduction in discretionary spending in the
history of our nation.”

GOP leaders have promised $74 billion in immediate cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year to President Barack Obama’s 2011 budget, which was proposed but never enacted. The reductions fall short of the $100 billion in cuts Republicans campaigned for last fall, creating division within GOP ranks over how far the Republican-led House should push for steeper cuts this year.

Furthermore, because the president’s 2011 proposal was never enacted, the cuts being proposed by the GOP will be taken off current spending levels and amount to about $35 billion—too low for fiscal hawks, including those new lawmakers who campaigned on deeper cuts.

Still, the preview of the cuts represent substantial
hits to programs across the federal government and particularly target
Democratic-priorities by slashing funds to the Environmental Protection Agency, a community policing grant program initiated under the Clinton administration and arts funds.

The cuts reach into venerable institutions such as the FBI and the National Institutes of Health, and will likely result in cutbacks that hit virtually every congressional district.

Such cuts are unlikely to be approved by the Senate, creating a showdown as Congress faces a March 4 deadline to fund the federal government as the current spending plan expires.

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(c) 2011, Tribune Co.

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