Bush budget lists programs slated for cuts
Starving underperforming programs would save government billions, OMB says.
The Bush administration cited poor performance and redundancy in its proposal to eliminate or slash the budgets of 151 federal programs in fiscal 2009. The cuts, touted during the president's State of the Union address and outlined in budget documents released Monday, would save approximately $18 billion.
The cuts are listed in Table S-5 of the summary tables included in the budget proposal. They include the termination of 104 discretionary programs and significant funding reductions for 47 others.
"These are programs that are frankly just not achieving the results that they need to achieve," said Jim Nussle, director of the Office of Management and Budget, at a press conference on Monday. OMB used results from its Program Assessment Rating Tool, a barometer for gauging performance, to make some of the recommendations.
If history is a guide, Congress likely will approve only a fraction of the proposed cuts. Of the 141 cuts proposed for fiscal 2008, lawmakers enacted just 29. Approximately 70 percent of this year's proposed changes were also part of fiscal 2008's budget recommendations.
Even so, Nussle sees small successes as valuable, especially since the Bush administration is working with a Congress controlled by the opposition party. "It is a worthwhile exercise," he said. "Even if Congress disagrees on maybe all 151, I think it's an important thing we ought to do."
Twenty-one agencies would see their programs cut or terminated under the proposal, with the Education, Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Transportation departments taking the toughest hits.
Downsizing or eliminating 50 Education programs would save the government more than $3.8 billion, according to the administration. An OMB overview of Education's budget proposal cited the elimination of the family literacy grant program Even Start -- which received a PART rating of "ineffective" -- as a good example of performance-based budget prioritization. National evaluations of the program, OMB said, showed it did not adequately increase literacy skills of participating children and parents.
Two other Education programs slated for extinction -- one providing grants to vocational and technical high schools and community colleges and the other assisting college students with exceptional financial needs -- would save the government more than $1.9 billion, according to OMB.
Other programs the administration would like to shut down include HHS' Community Services Block Grant program and state and local grant programs administered by the Homeland Security Department.
OMB will provide more detailed justifications for the proposed cuts some time next week, according to a spokeswoman.