House, Senate on diverging paths on agency budgets

June 18, 2013 @ 1:59 pm


Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., accompanied by members of the GOP leadership, meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, following a Republican strategy session. From left are, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Sen. John Thune, R-S.D, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., McConnell, and Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) | Zoom

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans controlling the House unveiled slashing cuts Tuesday to a program that helps localities build community development projects, while their rivals in the Democratic-led Senate proposed to restore GOP cuts to international food aid and nutrition help for pregnant women.

An Energy Department spending bill that would cut President Barack Obama's requests for renewable energy programs, meanwhile, began its advance through the House Appropriations Committee as the battling chambers continued to proceed down wildly divergent budget tracks.

Senate Democrats were pressing to restore deep cuts to domestic programs like education, housing, health research and a variety of other programs despite agency budget "caps" more than $90 billion below the $967 billion level set under current law.

At issue was Congress' nuts and bolts budget work _ the annual spending bills funding day-to-day agency operations _ but it was taking on the appearance of a slow-motion train wreck with the most likely result being even larger across-the-board cuts than were imposed earlier this year.

As long as Obama and congressional Republicans remain stalemated over the big-picture budget issues of taxes and curbing benefit programs like Medicare and food stamps, federal agencies remain stuck with deep, across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration. The calendar is working against reversing sequestration for the current budget year expiring on Sept. 30 and hope is fading for a budget deal that would stave off even deeper cuts this fall.

The current situation has evolved from the failure of Obama and Congress to follow up the hard-fought 2011 budget and debt deal, which created sequestration as a $1.2 trillion backstop if Congress and Obama failed to deliver alternative deficit cuts to replace it. Originally designed to be so punishing as to force the sides to an agreement, sequestration now has become a grim reality, squeezing the Pentagon by about 8 percent and cutting domestic agencies by about 5 percent.

"I would anticipate that we probably see the sequester happen a second time," Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said.

Unless Congress acts, sequestration will cap agency operating budgets at $967 billion next year, though so-called emergencies like overseas military operations and most disaster aid would add to that. House Republicans are sticking with the caps but cutting domestic programs even more deeply in order to channel resources to the Pentagon.

The result is measures like the $44 billion transportation and housing bill released Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee. The bill cuts the popular community development grant program, which funds projects like sidewalks, playgrounds and low-income housing rehabilitation, by $1.3 billion, to just $1.6 billion, the lowest level since the Ford administration in the 1970s.

The measure also cuts funding for so-called Section 8 housing vouchers, which is likely to mean that people won't be added to the program off of waiting lists that already can span many years. It eliminates funding for the Choice Neighborhoods program that seeks to revive struggling urban areas with public housing projects.

"This bill is an example of the current budgetary trade-offs facing our nation _ the need to make deep cuts to meet our fiscal constraints and address the deficit, while maintaining funding for important government programs and services" like housing, transportation infrastructure and air traffic control, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said. The bill would avoid layoffs or furloughs of air traffic controllers, Rogers said, and would make sure that everyone receiving a subsidized housing voucher will continue to receive one.

The measure would eliminate funding for high-speed rail projects and cut back capital projects for Amtrak from $952 million to $600 million.

It was a different picture in the Senate, where two subcommittees approved bipartisan bills funding the departments of Agriculture and the Veterans Affairs. The Senate's $21 billion agriculture measure is $1.4 billion more generous than the House measure, which allowed Appropriations agriculture subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., to restore House GOP cuts to the widely-backed Food for Peace program delivering U.S. food aid overseas. The panel also restored House cuts to the Women, Infants and Children program that feeds low-income mothers and their babies.

But some Republicans opposed the legislation because the panel drafted the bills at levels that ignore the current budget sequestration vise.

"It is the law and whether we like it or not I think we need to honor that," said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind. "But these appropriations bills in the whole ... ignore the sequester."


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (77)


  • Add A Comment

  • Hayduke wrote...
    Fair enough, although he won the popular vote by a comfortable enough margin.
    December 31, 2001 8:38 pm
    But he also won the Electoral College, which is what matters in the end, by more than a 2 to 1 margin.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Pair o'dimes wrote...
    How in the world?
    March 20, 2013 6:15 pm
    I have not been following the posts on MyNorthwest for all that long, but seriously, is a comment made in 2001 relevant to an article in 2013? Are the date and time stamps correct? Why do they string together comments from much older news stories?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hnuh wrote...
    02-19-2013
    February 19, 2013 1:48 pm
    This is truly pathetic. 85 billion is 8.5% of one trillion. Spending is about 3.6 trillion. Therefore the "draconian" cut of 85 billion represents about 2.36% of all spending. I think this would, in real life, be insignificant. Further, that 85 billion, is it for one year or is it over ten years?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • 509 wrote...
    Well, it is the only way to STOP Obama's wars!!!
    February 20, 2013 4:15 pm
    So be it. Their talking about leaving 40,000 troops in Afganistan AFTER our leaving!!! What?? Illegal war in Libya. We are tired of war. End them...now.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • C"mon Man wrote...
    How about......................
    February 24, 2013 11:51 am
    Not spending more than you take in? Been popular and prudent with small business and working family's for over 200 years. Cut congress pay,end their"free stuff', must be a reason they pay millions to hold that title.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    haley barbour
    February 24, 2013 6:13 pm
    Size 46 sportcoat, size 2 hat. What a bunch of losers. republicans need to learn that their place in govt. is not what is used to be, or ever will be.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    That's all you got?
    February 25, 2013 12:56 pm
    Insults? Dam(n) you are a pathetic exucuse for a human being. And at least Haley Barbour can ADD, unlike Barry Husein Owebama. Owebama has created this by spending too much and now he's whining that's he can't spend more?!?!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • SickofSeattleite wrote...
    @HPD 5-0
    February 26, 2013 5:31 am
    that's all longwayhome ever has....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • FormerMarineSgt wrote...
    @HPD 5-0.... "That's all you got?"
    March 12, 2013 9:49 am
    Seems like you're the pot calling the kettle black here. One comment above longway's is yours - "Everthing you write is full of dung... like your skull."
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    More STUPIDITY from WRONGWAY!
    February 25, 2013 1:08 pm
    Hers the real problem you DUMBSHIIT: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyLmru6no4U
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Parrots your Dear Leader will finally get his desire.
    February 25, 2013 11:12 am
    To drive us over the fiscal cliff. Blame it on the Republicans though? Your Dear Leader and the regime is driving this car!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • murr wrote...
    The public warns (the leader of fiscal cliff's) Management by emergency.
    February 25, 2013 6:41 pm
    Spending more than you bring in, will break you. That might be news to you people that dream to be a victim, and at someone else's beck and call. (and some call him a leader)
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    maplecarp and hpd's
    February 25, 2013 7:48 pm
    Heads are up the poop chute. Can't see cause it's too dark? You two are worse than it's me any day, with your republican stupidity. Remember, you lost? Why is that? Explain to the rest of us on this news site why you guys STILL think Obama is on the wrong track. Try to use your own words, don't go to faux news for some obscure clips from your favorite limbaugh quotes, just some common sense reason why you guys think you are right and the Democrats are wrong. I'm not going to hold my breath for any sensible response, probably just some more name calling and vague answers. I'll start it out by calling on hpd to post ONE solution to the problems of the country, without his usual negative input.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Again...DUMBSHIIT Wrongway -
    February 25, 2013 9:14 pm
    Read this, learn and PISS OFF: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyLmru6no4U
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    wronway....You are a child....
    February 26, 2013 6:35 am
    .....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    just some common sense reason why you guys think you are right and the Democrats are wrong.
    February 26, 2013 6:37 am
    I can provide sixteen TRILLION reasons (and growing) why he and you are wrong and each one has a picture of Washington on them. But then you have no commons sense and obviously cannot grasp economics or basic math.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • bigdogina4x4 wrote...
    Longway...seriously her is the list:
    March 4, 2013 11:39 am
    1. We can't spend more than we take in. The money we take in is Taxes, and many Americans are taxed out and finding it hard to buy groceries and such. So, Obama needs to trim spending. 2. Obama is a poor leader. One example is during the Sequester fight, congress gave him an option to be selective in the spending cuts, but he didn;t have the chops for it abnd refused. Why would he not want to be able to be selective? 3. He tries to manipulate the public with fear. Remember all the horrific things that were going to happen when the sequester set in, the lines, hungry children, a defensless nation.... Guess what, after it happened - he says quote "it's not going to be the apocolypse". Why did he try to make it sound like it was. 4. What about Begazi, we're still not sure why that happened.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    Waiting..........
    February 25, 2013 8:01 pm
    .......
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    When happy hour
    February 25, 2013 8:14 pm
    Is at noon, most republican posters are not available at this late hour.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Wrongway
    February 25, 2013 9:22 pm
    Your Messiah Obama is a PATHETIC, INCOMPETENT, LYING HYPOCRITE, (just like you little man) who's incapable of doing anything but non-stop campaigning and running away from the HUGE eF ING Mess he's created. He is a FRAUD and a FAILURE and in 3 more weeks we'll be trying again NOT TO SHUT the Government down. You are just too stupid to understand the real world. Put on some big-boy apnts and pay attention. Here's a little more info on your pathetic leader: www.humanevents.com/.../a-dimes-worth-of-barack-obama-g...Cached
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    BTW - Dumbshiit WrongWay
    February 25, 2013 9:38 pm
    None of the links I posted were from Fox or any Right leaning Media. They were available all over YouTube. Of course your probably to stupid to even navaigate the links to the proper sites. And as for losing? WRONG! I will live better, my children will live better and their children will live better than you will ever imagine, so who's the LOSER? Not me. HAHAHA...I'm retired at 50 and own 3 beautiful homes. I travel constantly and have put 3 children through college with NO HELP from the Government. I pay more in tax every month then you will ever hope to make in a lifetime. Now, go to the links dumbshiit and learn something. There may be a chance for you to get off pubilc assistance someday if you just use your tiny brain...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    That's cause we are working extra to pay for all you spending.
    February 26, 2013 6:38 am
    ...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }