Trillion-Dollar Measure to Freeze Government Spending Passed by U.S. House
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey
Jay Mallin/Bloomberg
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey said the measure would make “adjustments that just might ease the financial desperation facing so many families today.”
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey said the measure would make “adjustments that just might ease the financial desperation facing so many families today.” Photographer: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg
A $1.1 trillion measure to freeze spending on most government programs at current levels was approved by the U.S. House as lawmakers pushed to complete work on a stack of overdue appropriations bills.
The bill, approved 212-206 yesterday, would cut billions from President Barack Obama’s defense budget request, freeze the pay of non-military government employees and give the Interior Department more time to consider potential environmental effects of proposed oil and gas drilling permits. It also includes an additional $159 billion in “emergency” funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The measure would cut $46 billion, or about 4 percent, from the White House’s budget request for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Lawmakers attached an unrelated food-safety measure that cleared the Senate last month before being tripped up by constitutional concerns that, because it includes revenue provisions, it must originate in the House.
In the vote on the bill, 35 opposed it while no Republicans supported it.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, said the measure would make “adjustments that just might ease the financial desperation facing so many families today.”
Stopgap Funding
The government is currently funded by a stopgap measure that expires Dec. 18 after Democrats failed to pass a budget or any of the 12 annual appropriations bills setting spending levels for individual agencies and programs.
House Republicans have called for a short-term funding bill that would make it easier for them to begin cutting spending when they take control of the House in January. Republicans promised to roll back domestic “discretionary” spending to 2008 levels, which would mean a $100 billion cut.
“This would be the clearest signal the House could send to the American people that we got the message in November and are deadly serious about cutting spending,” said Representative Jerry Lewis of California, the top Republican on the Appropriations panel.
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are seeking Republican votes to substitute an “omnibus” measure that would spend about $20 billion more than the House bill and would include thousands of lawmakers’ pet projects known as earmarks. The House legislation omits earmarks.
Drilling Permits
The House bill would give the Interior Department up to 90 days, from the current 30 days, to examine potential safety and environment effects of proposed oil and gas drilling permits. That drew complaints from Senators Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, who said it would hurt companies still suffering from a drilling moratorium imposed after this year’s BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Adding more time to the clock will only serve to further delay a process that needs to be accelerated,” Landrieu and Murkowski said in a letter.
While the House bill freezes total spending at last fiscal year’s levels, some programs would see increases within that cap. The Pentagon’s budget would grow by $4.9 billion, to $513 billion, with most of the increase going to a 1.4 percent pay raise for military personnel and higher agency health-care costs. Still, the funding fell short of the $23 billion increase the Defense Department had requested.
The bill would provide a $5.7 billion increase for the Pell college tuition grant program, which go to students from low- income families, as well as $550 million for the Education Department’s “Race to the Top” program designed to boost student achievement. The plan also provides $2 billion for the State Department and foreign aid programs. The Secret Service would get an additional $14 million to prepare for the 2012 presidential campaign.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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