Democrats agreed to $46 billion in cuts to Barack Obama's budget. | AP Photo Close
By DAVID ROGERS | 12/8/10 6:48 PM EST Updated: 12/8/10 8:22 PM EST
The House narrowly approved a stripped-down budget bill Wednesday evening, cutting nearly $46 billion from President Barack Obama’s requests in order to hold total governmentwide appropriations to no more than the current $1.09 trillion level.
Unprecedented in its scope, the measure barely survived a 207-206 procedural vote when senior Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee suddenly broke ranks to protest Guantanamo-related language in the package. Party leaders, caught off-guard, seemed shaken but then steadied themselves, prevailing 212-206 with no Republican help and 35 Democratic defections.
Going forward, the $1.09 trillion total represents an important marker, because it matches the 2012 spending target recommended by the president’s deficit reduction commission. Obama must consider this in February, when he writes his own 2012 budget, and for the remainder of fiscal 2011 ending Sept. 30, the House bill gives him greater flexibility to manage the government with less.
The result could be a significant shift of power to the executive branch at the expense of Congress. The House resolution is free of the typical spending earmarks favored by lawmakers, and one big winner could be Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has long hungered for more discretion to end weapons programs such as the second-engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
Year-end budget crises have become almost routine in Washington, but the collapse of the process this year has reached a scale not seen before.
No budget resolution was even considered on the House or Senate floors last spring, and not one of the dozen annual appropriations bills that fund Cabinet departments has been sent to the president. Since Oct. 1, the government has been dependent on a stopgap “continuing resolution” that will expire Dec. 18, and the House bill is essentially a full-year continuing resolution for the entire government.
Unprecedented in its scope, the measure barely survived a 207-206 procedural vote when senior Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee suddenly broke ranks to protest Guantanamo-related language in the package. Party leaders, caught off-guard, seemed shaken but then steadied themselves, prevailing 212-206 with no Republican help and 35 Democratic defections.
Senate Democrats still hope to substitute a more detailed omnibus bill that would restore about $18 billion, chiefly for the departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security. But Obama’s costly $850 billion tax deal with Republicans might torpedo this effort. And the White House already appears to have stepped back, putting its chips on the House bill and thereby undercutting the president’s old colleague, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii).
Indeed, the administration has spent the past week salting the House bill with extra money for the president’s priorities — within the context of an overall freeze. One of the final additions, for example, was $550 million for Obama’s Race to the Top education initiative — not funded in 2010. And a $624 million increase is provided for nuclear weapons programs important to the START treaty with Russia, a priority for the president. Going forward, the $1.09 trillion total represents an important marker, because it matches the 2012 spending target recommended by the president’s deficit reduction commission. Obama must consider this in February, when he writes his own 2012 budget, and for the remainder of fiscal 2011 ending Sept. 30, the House bill gives him greater flexibility to manage the government with less.
The result could be a significant shift of power to the executive branch at the expense of Congress. The House resolution is free of the typical spending earmarks favored by lawmakers, and one big winner could be Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has long hungered for more discretion to end weapons programs such as the second-engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
Year-end budget crises have become almost routine in Washington, but the collapse of the process this year has reached a scale not seen before.
No budget resolution was even considered on the House or Senate floors last spring, and not one of the dozen annual appropriations bills that fund Cabinet departments has been sent to the president. Since Oct. 1, the government has been dependent on a stopgap “continuing resolution” that will expire Dec. 18, and the House bill is essentially a full-year continuing resolution for the entire government.
When Democrats took over Congress in 2007, they faced a similar crisis triggered by the collapse of Republican power. But war funding and major security agencies such as Defense and Homeland Security were not part of the mix, and President George W. Bush allowed several billion in domestic spending increases as long as the total conformed to his budget caps.
The picture now is more severe. And once the full deficit impact of the tax deal — rivaling Obama’s landmark recovery act two years ago — sinks in, the path could get tougher. Vice President Joe Biden met at length with House Democrats on Wednesday to try to calm the waters. But liberals are furious with the concessions made by Obama. Deficit-conscious moderates — who had made their peace with the estate-tax relief previously adopted by the House — now find the White House giving away billions more to lower rates on those with estates of more than $5 million.
The administration knows it will face an onslaught of rescission bills from the House next month, but accepting a short-term CR would be a tactical nightmare for Obama. It would give immense leverage to the incoming Republican majority, and the administration fears this outcome so much that the spending resolution was brought to the House floor Wednesday under procedures that blocked the GOP from forcing a vote on a shorter version.
Such a vote will be harder to avoid in the Senate, and here the delicate balance between Inouye’s omnibus and the House’s yearlong CR come into play.
By reaching out to Republicans, Inouye has tried to build support for a package cutting $26 billion from Obama’s 2011 budget but preserving more of Congress’s prerogatives. While the stripped-down CR would be cheaper, it remains a crude instrument that makes it harder to manage departments efficiently. The biggest exceptions to the House spending freeze were for the Pentagon, $4.9 billion; veterans’ medical care, $3.1 billion; and $2.2 billion for the State Department and foreign aid programs. In addition, the bill adds $5.7 billion to make up for a shortfall in Pell Grant funding that could otherwise reduce aid packages for low-income college students in the 2011-12 school year.
Defense would get its $157.6 billion war-funding request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the State Department’s aid programs in the same regions will be affected by the size of the reductions
The picture now is more severe. And once the full deficit impact of the tax deal — rivaling Obama’s landmark recovery act two years ago — sinks in, the path could get tougher. Vice President Joe Biden met at length with House Democrats on Wednesday to try to calm the waters. But liberals are furious with the concessions made by Obama. Deficit-conscious moderates — who had made their peace with the estate-tax relief previously adopted by the House — now find the White House giving away billions more to lower rates on those with estates of more than $5 million.
House Republicans had hoped to find an opening Wednesday to derail the yearlong CR and substitute a shorter version running into early March. Rep Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who will take over the gavel of the House Appropriations Committee next month, said Democrats were responsible for a “failure of epic proportions.”
“Failure on all fronts: process, product and performance,” Rogers lectured the House. “Prepare to go to work in the 112th Congress.” The administration knows it will face an onslaught of rescission bills from the House next month, but accepting a short-term CR would be a tactical nightmare for Obama. It would give immense leverage to the incoming Republican majority, and the administration fears this outcome so much that the spending resolution was brought to the House floor Wednesday under procedures that blocked the GOP from forcing a vote on a shorter version.
Such a vote will be harder to avoid in the Senate, and here the delicate balance between Inouye’s omnibus and the House’s yearlong CR come into play.
By reaching out to Republicans, Inouye has tried to build support for a package cutting $26 billion from Obama’s 2011 budget but preserving more of Congress’s prerogatives. While the stripped-down CR would be cheaper, it remains a crude instrument that makes it harder to manage departments efficiently. The biggest exceptions to the House spending freeze were for the Pentagon, $4.9 billion; veterans’ medical care, $3.1 billion; and $2.2 billion for the State Department and foreign aid programs. In addition, the bill adds $5.7 billion to make up for a shortfall in Pell Grant funding that could otherwise reduce aid packages for low-income college students in the 2011-12 school year.
Defense would get its $157.6 billion war-funding request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the State Department’s aid programs in the same regions will be affected by the size of the reductions
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46166.html#ixzz17ZxToDJy
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