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Legislative Network Alerts Alert Number 115 March 10, 2005 For Your Information House Budget Committee Proposes Deep Cuts in Education and Job Training Spending To: Members of the Legislative Network From: Patricia Leahy, Director of Governmental Affairs We are attaching for your information today's Congressional Quarterly (CQ) report on the House Budget Committee's proposed funding cuts in both discretionary and mandatory programs. Please note that the Budget Resolution directs the House Education and the Workforce Committee to come up with 21 BILLION in spending cuts over the next 5 years. An in-depth examination of the House and Senate budget processes will be discussed at the National Rehabilitation Association's forthcoming 2005 Legislative Summit, which will begin on Sunday, March 13-14, 2005, at the Old Town Hilton Alexandria Hotel on King Street in Alexandria, Virginia, and culminating on Tuesday, March 15, with NRA's 'Day on the Hill.' We look forward to being with you at this important Legislative Summit. We will continue to keep you advised of Budget developments and issues of great importance to all of us in NRA, including updates on information regarding the WIA PLUS BLOCK GRANT CONSOLIDATION PROPOSAL, which was NOT made a part of the House WIA bill, H.R. 27, the Job Training Improvement Act of 2005. The Senate WIA bill, at this time, is expected to be introduced sometime in early April. The National Rehabilitation Association is monitoring this situation very closely and will keep you advised of any and all developments regarding the Senate WIA bill. All timelines are current as of this date and time and could change quickly. CQ TODAY March 9, 2005 – 11:54 a.m. House Budget Proposal Would Make Deep Cuts in Mandatory Spending By Andrew Taylor, CQ Staff House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, on Wednesday unveiled a fiscal 2006 budget resolution calling for cuts in mandatory spending totaling 69 billion over five years. That is about 18 billion more than President Bush had sought and significantly more than his Senate counterpart is expected to propose later in the day. The House budget writers targeted health programs, education and pension law changes for the biggest share of the cuts in mandatory spending. The budget resolution would direct the Education and the Workforce Committee to come up with 21 billion in savings over five years. The Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid and part of Medicare, would be required to make cuts totaling 20 billion. Other cuts — to farm programs, veterans’ benefits, transportation and such — would make up the remainder of the mandatory savings. The GOP blueprints would generate the first cuts in mandatory spending since 1997, though the proposed reductions are far more modest than the ones Congress made eight years ago. Even so, the negotiations leading up to the markups have encountered resistance among Republicans to certain cuts. “This budget chooses, as tough as it may be, to begin dealing with this problem,” Nussle said of entitlement program spending, which accounts for the lion’s share of all federal spending. For example, the House GOP plan would require only 5.3 billion in savings from the Agriculture Committee. The Bush budget, as scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), called for about 7 billion in farm cuts. The tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, which also has jurisdiction over a host of spending programs such as welfare, Medicare and unemployment insurance, would be instructed to produce 18.7 billion in net savings. Since some tax cuts delivered in the form of refunds are scored as spending, it is unclear precisely how much in cuts the powerful panel will produce. The amount of savings to be produced in 2006 would be limited to 7.8 billion. Under the House proposal, a tax cut reconciliation bill would advance by late June or before. A second measure incorporating cuts in entitlement programs and other mandatory spending would move later — giving governors and state legislators additional time to fight the recommended cuts, especially those affecting Medicaid. Committees would be instructed to report their spending cuts by Sept. 16. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., acknowledged Tuesday that his budget plan would produce less in mandatory spending cuts. GOP aides said the Senate plan would produce about 40 billion in savings. That is expected to include about 14 billion in savings from Medicaid, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Wednesday. “We’re not going to get to the president’s number,” Gregg said. “I want to, but there are constraints I’m willing to accept.” On taxes, the House budget assumes 106 billion in tax cuts over the next five years, about 6 billion more than called for in Bush’s budget. Only 45 billion in tax cuts would advance under fast-track budget reconciliation procedures. The House budget proposal would permit 843 billion in discretionary spending, matching Bush’s request, with 419.5 billion of that allocated for defense, a 4.8 percent increase over current levels. Another 32.5 billion would go to homeland security, a 2.3 percent increase. The total for all other discretionary spending, from education to law enforcement to housing and health research, would be 391.1 billion, a decrease of 0.8 percent. The budget also assumes that 50 billion will be spent on operations in Iraq during fiscal 2006; President Bush’s budget did not include funding for Iraq operations beyond the current fiscal year. The House proposal would produce a deficit of 376 billion in 2006, gradually sliding to 229.4 billion in fiscal 2009. Democrats attacked the GOP plan for worsening the deficit even as it outlined painful spending cuts. And they continued to note that the budget leaves out costs that all but guarantee deficits in the 400 billion range well into the future. “While claiming progress on the deficit, it actually worsens the problem,” said ranking Budget Committee Democrat John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina. “The deficit is worse than portrayed because the resolution omits substantial costs. It includes not a dime for the cost of the president’s Social Security privatization plan, and does not provide any deficit numbers at all beyond five years, masking the deficits after 2010, which grow worse as tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, set to expire in 2010, are instead renewed.” Source: CQ Today Round-the-clock coverage of news from Capitol Hill. © 2005 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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