Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
A day after five House subcommittees approved $7 billion worth of cuts in summer programs for youngsters, in food aid to poor women and children and in other programs, four more panels were at work seeking new reductions.
The focus of the day's labors was a subcommittee debating a massive $9.4 billion cut in funds already in the budget. Included were proposals for $7.3 billion in reductions for public housing modernization, rent assistance for the poor and other housing programs. Other cuts were aimed at water projects, President Clinton's national service program, veterans' hospitals and medical equipment.
Another panel approved $272 million in cuts to law enforcement, commerce and diplomatic programs - including a $30 million cut in high technology grants, an initiative of Vice President Al Gore's. The panel also rejected the Clinton administration's request for $672 million for international peacekeeping activities.
Still another subcommittee voted to erase $159 million in proposed spending, mostly by killing 13 proposed new federal office buildings and courthouses.
``I think it's just unconscionable, it's reprehensible,'' Rep. Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, said of the housing reductions.
``The fact is the money isn't getting there,'' responded Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., whose House Appropriations Committee is searching for the cuts. ``We have greater poverty than before the War on Poverty began'' in the 1960s.
House GOP leaders now expect to approve more than $17 billion in immediate cuts in scores of programs, which would be one of the largest slashes ever in funding already enacted into law. Having promised deep reductions in their ``Contract With America'' campaign manifesto, they are intent on showing voters that they mean business - and in effect daring Clinton to oppose them.
With the GOP swinging its budget scythe at programs that have served Democrats' low-income constituents for years, the minority party's leaders tried to paint Republicans as heartless.
``These guys are pursuing an extremist agenda that savages those living near the poverty line,'' said Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. ``They just let their ideological zealots have free rein ... and the results are vicious.''
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros predicted the cuts would push 32,000 families into homelessness and called them ``illogical and unfair.''
Republicans countered that they were merely responding to public demands that the government be made smaller and more efficient.
``If you believe the government should control everything and you believe only bureaucrats know what they're doing, any cuts are extremist,'' House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said.
``It's crazy to say you can't touch these programs because they sound good when they don't work, most of them,'' said Rep. Bill Young of Florida, a senior Republican on the appropriations panel.
The cuts are aimed at reducing the federal deficit and helping 40 states recover from recent natural disasters and storms. But even those costs weren't safe. GOP budget cutters proposed paring Clinton's $6.7 billion request for disaster assistance to $5.4 billion, and said they would consider the rest later. Most of the money is destined for Southern California, still facing costs of the January 1994 earthquake.
by CNB