Saturday, February 19, 2011
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
In rapid-fire action Friday, the Republican-controlled House voted to strip federal money from President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul and from Planned Parenthood and to bar the EPA from issuing global- warming regulations.
Upping the ante in the budget face-off, the Obama administration warned that workers who distribute Social Security benefits might be furloughed if congressional Republicans force cuts in government spending.
In a letter the Social Security Administration sent to its employees union, agency officials said that although no decision about furloughs had been made, they were possible “given the potential of reduced congressional appropriations.”
The letter was circulated by congressional Democrats, who said such cuts could mean shuttered Social Security offices and delayed benefit payments. The letter’s distribution by Democrats underscored how the threat of jeopardizing Social Security payments is a potent political weapon.
GOP lawmakers accused Democrats of “irresponsible scare tactics” and said their proposed cuts would not affect benefits or force the Social Security Administration to close offices. Any furloughs “would result only if that decision were made by the administration,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said in a written statement.
Republicans are pushing a huge spending bill through the House that would impose deep cuts on domestic programs.
The overall bill is the first step in an increasingly bitter struggle between Democrats and Republicans over how much to cut federal agencies’ funding over the second half of the budget year that ends Sept. 30. Current funding runs out March 4, and a temporary spending bill will be needed to avoid a government shutdown.
Republicans say the legislation would pare Social Security’s administrative budget by $125 million from current levels plus an additional $500 million from a reserve fund. Democrats say the cut would leave the agency with $1.7 billion less than Obama requested.
Much of Friday’s focus was on GOP efforts to block implementation of Obama’s health-care overhaul, which dominated Congress’ work in 2009 and was enacted last year. An amendment by Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., to block the health-care overhaul money was approved by a 239-187 vote.
The GOP has virtually no chance of killing the law because of support for the program from Obama and the Democratic-run Senate, but House Republicans have been trying relentlessly to chip away at it.
In Friday’s action, Republicans muscled through a proposal to block federal aid to Planned Parenthood by a 240-185 vote and won bipartisan support to reverse a proposed Obama administration rule that seeks to crack down on for-profit colleges and vocational schools. A proposal by Texas Republican Ted Poe to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to issue regulations on global warming passed by a 249-177 vote.