Having cut deals with the Clinton administration on a variety of funding bills, House GOP appropriators are pointing to several major victories in this year's spending bills.
"I'm proud to report through the annual appropriations process, Republicans have successfully reversed a ten-year uninterrupted trend of increases in domestic spending," House Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., said in a release that included a list of "appropriations accomplishments" of the 105th Congress.
Livingston said this year's spending level of $252 billion is below the 1993 spending level of $253 billion. The chairman noted 10 programs had been terminated, including the Ounce of Prevention Council and the $1.5 million Office of Consumer Affairs.
Livingston also cited Republican "success" in increasing funding for immigration agents, expanding the so-called Hyde abortion provision to cover health maintenance organizations, including a provision to stall national education testing, providing new oversight for the National Endowment for the Arts, cutting IRS funding and increasing funding for Pell Grants and national parks.
In a separate list, Republicans cited various priorities contained in the Labor-HHS funding measure. Calling the spending levels in that bill part of the "signing fee" they had to give the president in exchange for tax cuts, GOP appropriators said they still made several gains in the bill--including a freeze on National Labor Relations Board funding, a shift away from Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement in favor of compliance assistance, a cut in Goals 2000 state grant funds and a $907 million increase in medical research funding.
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