House Republicans go easy on budget cuts for Congress

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Republicans now running the House are barely touching Congress’ generous own budget even as they take a cleaver to many domestic agencies.

A new GOP proposal would reduce domestic agencies’ spending by 9 percent on average through September, when the current budget year ends.

If that plan becomes law, it could lead to layoffs of tens of thousands of federal employees, big cuts to heating and housing subsidies for the poor, reduced grants to schools and law- enforcement agencies and a major hit to the Internal Revenue Service’s budget.

Congress, on the other hand, would get nicked by only 2 percent, or $94 million.

Recent hefty increases to the congressional budget — engineered by Democrats when they held power in the House from 2007 to 2010 — would remain largely in place under a plan announced Thursday by the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.

The plan, developed in close consultation with Republican Speaker John Boehner’s office, would cut Congress’ budget less than any other domestic- spending bill, except for the one covering the Department of Homeland Security.

All 12 spending bills left unfinished by Democrats will go into a single, enormous measure that Republicans promise to bring up the week of Feb. 14.

“Charity begins at home, and Congress should lead the way with cuts to their own budget,” said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based watchdog group.