Congress should resist any temptation to boost spending beyond levels contained in the 1997 balanced budget agreement, House Appropriations Chairman Robert Livingston, R-La., said today--while taking particular aim at transportation spending.
The House Appropriations Committee will not violate the targets set in the budget agreement and must not boost them to fund programs such as transportation, Livingston said in remarks prepared for delivery at a Citizens Against Government Waste meeting in Louisiana.
The battle over transportation spending is expected to take center stage when Congress returns, as House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa., makes another effort to reauthorize the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. Livingston said Congress must confront the question of whether it wants to cut medical research or defense programs to boost "pet transportation projects."
Livingston said the budget deal calls for a cut in domestic discretionary spending amounting to 3 percent over the next few years, after spending is adjusted for inflation. He said he hopes Congress will be able to spend even less than the amount called for in the budget deal and that any budget surplus should be spent on tax cuts.
Appropriators have succeeded in eliminating 307 programs during the past three years, Livingston said. However, he said he would like to eliminate several larger programs, such as the Clinton administration's COPS program, the Advanced Technology Program, the Conservation Reserve Program, and renewable energy programs--spending he said amounts to handouts to major corporations. And he contended that while programs such as the Title I compensatory education program are politically popular, they also are wasteful.
Besides Livingston, Joint Economic Chairman Jim Saxton, R-N.J., has also called for a tax cut in recent days. "My own tax relief priorities would be to raise IRA deduction ceilings, shield savings interest for middle income taxpayers and address the marriage penalty," Saxton said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and a coalition of groups, including the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the Concord Coalition and the American Association of Retired Persons, have scheduled a news conference Tuesday to emphasize that they believe any predicted budget surplus should not be spent until the budget is balanced without Social Security trust funds being counted.
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