WASHINGTON - The House Appropriations Committee chairman said he won’t consider President Barack Obama’s budget request for $56 billion more than the spending limit Congress outlined in December.
A $1.014 trillion limit on discretionary spending was agreed to in a December budget deal by Senate Budget Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
Obama’s budget plan that was sent to Congress on Tuesday for fiscal 2015 included the funding for programs including public works and education. Rep. Hal Rogers specifically ruled out considering spending for the Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative.
“The answer’s no,” Rogers, of Kentucky, said when asked if he would consider the initiative as a supplemental spending bill for next year. The administration argues that the $56 billion is paid for with spending cuts and tax increases.
Some Democrats including Murray and Rep. Nita Lowey, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, had suggested Congress should consider the additional $56 billion above the spending cap for next year. Rogers made it clear that won’t happen.
“He knew, we knew that we’re going to do the number that’s written in law,” Rogers said.
On the other side of the Capitol, the top Senate Republican on the Budget Committee accused the White House of violating the bipartisan agreement on spending limits.
In the first congressional hearing on the budget plan, Sen. Jeff Sessions confronted White House budget director Sylvia Burwell on Wednesday about Obama’s proposal to spend $28 billion on public works, education, job training and other “investments,” with another $28 billion earmarked for the Defense Department.
“You are spending over what the law requires,” Sessions, R-Ala., told Burwell.
Burwell said the spending would be “paid for” by raising taxes and eliminating some tax breaks.
Both sides were anticipating an election-year clash over the budget as Obama pushes Democratic Party priorities and Republicans seek to keep spending in check.
Obama’s $3.9 trillion budget proposal would benefit low-income families, college students, researchers and highway users. In turn, he is asking more from airline passengers, U.S. multinational companies and high earners who would pay a “fair share tax” to pick up the tab for the added spending.
Burwell defended the White House plan by emphasizing that the deficit for next year is projected at $564 billion, the third year the shortfall would be less than $1 trillion. She said the public debt as a share of the economy would peak at 74.6 percent next year.
“It stabilizes in 2015 and declines” steadily to 69 percent by 2024, Burwell said.
Burwell in the afternoon moved to the House, where she testified before the House Budget Committee, whose chairman, Ryan, plans to issue his own budget in the coming weeks.
Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., tried to pin Burwell down on whether the budget ever balances. It doesn’t do so within 10 years, she replied.
After three minutes of back and forth, Garrett said he could only conclude that it never balances.
In the Senate, Burwell acknowledged that Obama’s request exceeded the so-called discretionary spending limit by $56 billion and “will require an amending of the law.”
“Are you spending more than the law allows currently?” Sessions asked.
Burwell began an explanation before Sessions cut her off. “Why can’t you say yes’ or no,” he demanded. Burwell replied, “because I think there are some questions that are not simply yes or no questions.”
Sessions said, “You’re refusing to answer it, I will answer it. The answer is you’re asking to us to raise the spending limits by changing the Ryan-Murray law so you can spend even more than you agreed to spend 10 weeks ago, and this is the way a nation goes broke.”
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the White House didn’t do enough to rein in entitlement programs such as Social Security or Medicare.
“These programs are not sustainable,” said Portman, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget under Republican President George W. Bush. He said Obama’s answer seemed to be “tax more and more.”
Obama’s budget plan would continue shrinking the federal deficit while boosting spending for education and infrastructure.
It projects a $649 billion deficit this year. The shortfall is projected to shrink in each of the next three years to a low of $413 billion in 2018 before rising again.
The deficit-to-gross-domestic-product ratio is projected at 3.7 percent this year, dropping to 3.1 percent next year, a level most economists consider manageable. It measured 9.9 percent when Obama took office in 2009.
Information for this article was contributed by Richard Rubin of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 03/06/2014