House, Senate GOPers seek plan to rein in spending

Fiscal conservatives in the House say they plan to coordinate more closely this year with their Senate colleagues on budget and appropriations strategy for fiscal 2001 in order to better rein in spending and, in particular, limit the level of emergency and advanced appropriations.

Another goal, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said today, is to "accelerate the schedule for appropriations so we are finished before the convention," which kicks off July 31. DeLay added that Congress as a whole needs to get all 13 annual spending bills to the president before the Oct. 1 deadline, so any post-veto negotiations with the White House can be conducted before the start of the new fiscal year-but noted that to do so will require "a huge effort."

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Congress last year designated $19.5 billion in emergency outlay spending for fiscal 2000, and "advance appropriated" into fiscal 2001 $23 billion in budget authority-meaning that $23 billion of the $541.7 billion budget authority cap CBO estimates for fiscal 2001 has already been committed.

The CBO estimates the fiscal 2001 outlay cap at $579.4 billion. In contrast, the most recent CBO figures put the final fiscal 2000 budget authority cap at $568 billion and the outlay cap at $597 billion. The CBO also projects next year's non-Social Security surplus will be $38 billion, although most number crunchers expect the CBO to come up with an even higher projection when it releases its January 2000 budget update at the end of the month.

Rep. John Sununu, R-N.H., who sits on both the Budget and Appropriations committees, said fiscal conservatives and GOP leaders in both chambers want better coordination on the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees' spending allocations, on the timing and sequence for moving bills, and on restraining the number of the controversial legislative riders.

Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who has led conservatives' efforts to cut spending, said this year he would like to see fiscal 2001 spending limited to the level of discretionary spending, minus emergency appropriations for fiscal 2000-and give any surplus over that amount "back to the American people" in the form of tax cuts.

Coburn said another goal that he is advocating to GOP leaders is to move the most controversial appropriations bills first. "That's the only way to get out of here on time-and it has to be a bicameral strategy," Coburn said. House Budget member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., also stressed the need to use the fiscal 2001 on-budget surplus for tax cuts, noting that having an on-budget surplus to work with last year for the first time since taking the majority "got us off- track" from the party's tax cut message.

Also today, DeLay said he expects the leadership to permanently fill the vacant GOP slot on the Appropriations Committee some time in February. Chief Deputy Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., has been filling in on the committee since Rep. Michael Forbes of New York switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.