Updated at 12:17 p.m. on February 9.
The House Appropriations Committee proposed today to cut funding for scores of politically sacred programs, from NASA and Amtrak to assistance for local police forces and even the FBI.
The proposed cuts are not always as big as they seem, because they are reductions from President Obama's never-enacted budget proposal for this year.
But the partial list details 70 proposed cuts as part of a House GOP proposal to fund the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year. The cuts include a $600 million reduction from Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget request for the Community Oriented Policing Services program and a $758 million cut from food assistance to low-income women, infants, and children.
“Never before has Congress undertaken a task of this magnitude,” said House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., in a statement. “The cuts in this CR will represent the largest reduction in discretionary spending in the history of our nation.”
The spending bill will also include cuts to several of Congress’ sacred cows: a $379 million cut to NASA, a $224 million cut to Amtrak, and a $256 million cut in assistance to state and local law enforcement. The FBI would receive $74 million less than the president requested for it.
And that's just the start. The Treasury Department's budget would be reduced by $268 million. Funding for university agriculture research would drop by $246 million, and Rural Development Programs would decline $227 million.
The total spending cuts in the CR will top $74 billion, including $58 billion in non-security discretionary spending reductions.
House Republicans last year campaigned on reducing non-security discretionary spending to fiscal 2008 levels, a roughly $100 billion cut, and the CR is a down payment on that promise -- a point Rogers stressed in a presentation to the GOP caucus this morning.
“While making these cuts is hard, we have a unique opportunity to right our fiscal ship and begin to reduce our massive deficits and debt,” Rogers continued. “We have taken a wire brush to the discretionary budget and scoured every program to find real savings that are responsible and justifiable to the American people.”
“Make no mistake, these cuts are not low-hanging fruit,” Rogers said. “These cuts are real and will impact every District across the country -- including my own. As I have often said, every dollar we cut has a constituency, an industry, an association, and individual citizens who will disagree with us. But with this CR, we will respond to the millions of Americans who have called on this Congress to rein in spending to help our economy grow and our businesses create jobs.”
Here is the list of proposed cuts, all compared to President Obama’s FY11 budget request:
· Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies -$30M
· Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy -$899M
· Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability -$49M
· Nuclear Energy -$169M
· Fossil Energy Research -$31M
· Clean Coal Technology -$18M
· Strategic Petroleum Reserve -$15M
· Energy Information Administration -$34M
· Office of Science under the Energy and water spending bill -$1.1B
· Power Marketing Administrations -$52M
· Department of Treasury -$675M
· Internal Revenue Service -$593M
· Treasury Forfeiture Fund -$338M
· GSA Federal Buildings Fund -$1.7B
· ONDCP -$69M
· International Trade Administration -$93M
· Economic Development Assistance -$16M
· Minority Business Development Agency -$2M
· National Institute of Standards and Technology -$186M
· NOAA -$336M
· National Drug Intelligence Center -$11M
· Law Enforcement Wireless Communications -$52M
· US Marshals Service -$10M
· FBI -$74M
· State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance -$256M
· Juvenile Justice -$2.3M
· COPS -$600M
· NASA -$379M
· NSF -$139M
· Legal Services Corporation -$75M
· EPA -$1.6B
· Food Safety and Inspection Services -$53M (FY10)
· Farm Service Agency -$201M
· Agriculture University Research -$246M
· Natural Resource Conservation Service -$46M
· Rural Development Programs -$237M
· WIC -$758M
· International Food Aid grants -$544M
· FDA -$220M
· Land and Water Conservation Fund -$348M
· National Archives and Record Service -$20M
· DOE Loan Guarantee Authority -$1.4B
· EPA ENERGY STAR -$7.4M
· EPA GHG Reporting Registry -$9M
· USGS -$27M
· EPA Cap and Trade Technical Assistance -$5M
· EPA State and Local Air Quality Management -$25M
· Fish and Wildlife Service -$72M
· Smithsonian -$7.3M
· National Park Service -$51M
· Clean Water State Revolving Fund -$700M
· Drinking Water State Revolving Fund -$250M
· EPA Brownfields -$48M
· Forest Service -$38M
· National Endowment for the Arts -$6M
· National Endowment for the Humanities -$6M
· Job Training Programs -$2B
· Community Health Centers -$1.3B
· Maternal and Child Health Block Grants -$210M
· Family Planning -$327M
· Poison Control Centers -$27M
· CDC -$755M
· NIH -$1B
· Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services -$96M
· LIHEAP Contingency fund -$400M
· Community Services Block Grant -$405M
· High Speed Rail -$1B
· FAA Next Gen -$234M
· Amtrak -$224M
· HUD Community Development Fund -$530M
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story, based on a press release from the House Appropriations Committee, mistated the proposed cuts for the Treasury Department, Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Rural Development Programs. Those numbers have been updated.
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