House GOP outlines sweeping spending cuts

WASHINGTON — Republican leaders unveiled a list of proposed cuts in government spending Wednesday that would strike hardest at priorities of the Obama administration, such as high-speed rail, scientific innovation and a wide array of clean-energy programs.

The list also includes deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal home-heating-assistance program and federal block grants that aid cities facing budget woes. And it envisions slicing nearly $760 million from the White House request for the WIC nutrition program that provides support to pregnant women and their children.

Programs traditionally favored by Republicans would not escape unscathed: The list includes, for example, more than $750 million in reductions, compared with President Obama's budget, to agriculture and rural development programs that benefit many GOP districts.

The entire proposal aims to cut more than $74 billion from Obama's budget request for the current fiscal year, including $58 billion from his plan for discretionary appropriations unrelated to national security.

"Never before has Congress undertaken a task of this magnitude," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., told Republican lawmakers at a caucus meeting Wednesday morning. "You will be voting on the largest set of spending cuts in the history of our nation."

House conservatives were unappeased, however, and vowed to offer a plan to cut spending by at least $100 billion. It was not clear whether the conservative Republican Study Committee would propose a lists of cuts to specific programs, as the Appropriations Committee has done, or whether it would simply instruct the White House to cut spending across the board.

"We still intend to offer an amendment that will meet our $100 billion pledge by setting nonsecurity spending at 2008 levels for the 2011 fiscal year," said Brian Straessle, spokesman for the study committee.

House GOP leaders endorsed the Appropriations cuts but were vague about the details. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the package of reductions would fulfill "our pledge to the American people that we will cut spending. All of this will help create an environment where we'll have more jobs in America."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said excessive federal funding has "been a big inhibitor to investment and job growth."

The list of cuts comes as House leaders are bracing for a chaotic floor fight next week over their campaign pledge to immediately pare discretionary programs back to 2008 levels. With a March 4 deadline looming, Congress must approve a new resolution to fund government through the remainder of the current fiscal year or risk a government shutdown.

The GOP proposal, therefore, would require sharp and immediate reductions at many federal agencies. Some programs would be eliminated entirely, such as Obama's high-speed-rail initiative and the AmeriCorps volunteer program, one of President Clinton's signature creations.

The list takes direct aim at Obama's innovation agenda, slashing the budget of the Office of Science by 20 percent. Elite science labs in Tennessee, California and Illinois are bracing for furloughs and possibly layoffs.

Other Republican targets include arts and cultural funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. All of the entities are routinely included on GOP lists; federal subsidies for the CPB would be effectively eliminated under the House proposal, fulfilling a long-standing conservative pledge to cut federal ties with National Public Radio and public television.

Money for minority business development, family planning and conservation programs also would be axed. Job-training funds would be reduced by $2 billion. Community health centers, which serve many low-income uninsured people, would lose $1 billion in funding. And more than $200 million would be trimmed from maternal and child health grants, which go to immunizations as well as assistance for blind and disabled children.