Take Action: Demand EPA Honesty on Environmental Aftermath from Hurricane Katrina

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

House Pushes Back Deadline for Budget Spending Bill

It appears the House Budget Committee has moved the deadline for budget reconciliation back yet again. After initially postponing the deadline post-Katrina, the committees were slated to get their spending proposals to the Budget Committee the week of Oct. 17, but Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) was able to push back the deadline to Oct. 28. The hope for Nussle is that this pushback will give committees an extra week to submit proposals for cutting mandatory spending to the budget panel. The Senate, apparently, will not join the House in this spending bill delay.

Nussle has proposed amending the FY 2006 budget resolution to call for across-the-board cuts in discretionary spending. His proposal notably calls for cuts in both defense and homeland security spending, as well as increased cuts in mandatory programs such as Medicare.

The calls for increased cuts have been increasing along with Republican restlessness over how to save money to pay for the costs of Katrina recovery. Groups such as the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget have lauded Nussle and others for their attempts to bring down the deficit by increasing budget cuts, yet are ignoring the fact that these same lawmakers support passing $70 billion worth of deficit-financed tax cuts in reconciliation. The Democratic Senate leadership has taken steps to urge Congressional GOPs that it is more important to deal with immediate needs of hurricane victims and rising energy prices, as opposed to passing another round of tax breaks through reconciliation. Minority leader Reid (D-NV) and a number of other Democratic Senators sent a letter to Majority leader Frist (R-TN) on Friday, outlining those points.