Budget cuts are a far cry from what House Republicans demanded. | Reuters/AP Photos Budget deal isn't all about cuts

Racing the clock yet again, House Republicans rolled out a six-month spending bill late Monday night, filling in the blanks of where last week’s budget pact cut — and didn’t – and what it cost each side to avert a government shutdown.

The White House must absorb real reductions in spending — a major reversal for President Barack Obama. The Environmental Protection Agency would be cut about $1.6 billion below 2010’s funding. For the first time ever, annual Homeland Security Department appropriations will be going down. And in the face of rising food prices, almost a half billion would be lost from Obama’s requests for international food aid.


But when it comes to the most crucial domestic battlegrounds, the cuts are a far cry from what House Republicans demanded. Indeed, the president will come out of the fight with more money to implement his education and Wall Street reforms.

Both the Securities and Exchange and Commodity Futures Trading commissions get modest increases — totaling about $110 million between them. Obama’s first love — “Race to the Top” education reforms — is promised $700 million in new money, the envy of many Democrats.

Even the EPA’s cut is about half of a $3 billion reduction the House had voted in February. AmeriCorps survives, after facing termination. The National Science Foundation received $6.9 billion, $307 million more than the House proposed. And mindful of the Democratic outcry, the Food Safety and Inspection Service is cut by just $10 million — a shadow of what Republicans had proposed two months ago.

Under House rules, floor debate on the measure will likely be delayed until Thursday now because of the failure to complete the paperwork until almost 2 a.m. Tuesday — well past the midnight deadline Monday.

From surface mining rules in the Appalachian East to the fate of the gray wolf in the Rocky Mountain West, policy issues intruded. But down to the end, the giant labor, health and education chapter of the bill best defined ground zero — and the relentless give-and-take over dollars.

Coming into this year, discretionary spending in this portion of the budget was running at about $169.4 billion, and the House voted in February to cut this to under $144 billion, a 15 percent reduction that decimated many programs. The new bill allows spending closer to $159 billion, about $15 billion higher. And even then to fill the gap, $6.2 billion in alternative savings from mandatory spending programs are available to offset new appropriations.

Within this framework, the White House locked in about $1.5 billion in increases that the president wants—like “Race to the Top.” But even after making room for these additions, the real appropriations cuts from existing programs will be about a quarter of what the House proposed.

About $400 million of what had been a larger $1 billion cut from community health centers is restored. Head Start funding will go up, not down, with the preschool program getting $7.6 billion or about $300 million more than today.

Pell Grants for low-income college students are protected against a shortfall. Title X family planning programs will survive, albeit at 2008 levels. New money to administer health care reform will flow to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but through a round-about route that requires the dollars to go first to a different health administration account and then be transferred to CMS.

In the field of transportation and housing, the same pattern is repeated, though in less dramatic fashion.

When the new Congress began in January, the government was spending at a rate of about $66.3 billion for programs in this sector. The House cut that by about $14 billion, a 21 percent reduction. But about $6.2 billion of those appropriations would be effectively restored in the new bill, through a combination of decisions, including $3.2 billion in savings from mandatory spending.

None of this changes the GOP’s dislike for Obama’s high-speed rail initiative. With its true champion, Rahm Emanuel, gone from the White House, the bill blocks any new funding and rescinds $400 million from the past. But close to $2 billion would be restored for community development block grants. And in what appears a change of heart, the bill allocates $528 million in new money for the Transportation Department’s TIGER grants, designed to spur local economies.

In the case of foreign aid — a major target for the GOP -- the final bill more often freezes spending near 2010 levels — walking a middle path between the increases Obama wanted while avoiding the deep cuts envisioned by the House.

The administration’s newer climate change and food aid initiatives suffer the most in this framework. An estimated $8.4 billion is allowed for economic and development assistance, $375 million less than 2010 but $1 billion more than the House. And under the budget agreement, some relief is allowed by shifting $800 million for the Pakistan Counter-Insurgency Fund off budget and into an emergency overseas contingency account to cover war related costs.

Among major agencies, the IRS would be frozen at about $12.15 billion — its 2010 funding level. But the Food and Drug Administration emerges with $2.45 billion, reflecting some increase. And the $7.8 billion allocated for FBI salaries and expenses represents a $176 million increase over 2010, albeit less than Obama’s request.

If pushed back to Thursday, the bill could complicate House debate on the next big issue before the spring recess: the 2012 budget resolution.

Less binding but still potent, the 68-page resolution calls for tens of billions more in appropriations cuts next year, largely targeted at domestic programs and foreign aid.



Total nonemergency discretionary spending would drop to $1.019 trillion, about $30 billion less than the budget pact last week and about $68 billion below the rate of spending just months ago.

Within these totals, the burden would fall first on domestic spending; picking up on the GOP’s “$100 billion” battle cry in the 2010 election, the resolution aims for its own $100 billion cut from Obama’s domestic spending requests in his 2012 budget.

Democrats appear relieved by the details of the final 2011 appropriations bill, and House leaders suggested Monday as many as 80 rank-and-file members might now support the package. But there is also real unhappiness that Obama has not done more to address the consequences of what Democrats fear will become a steady erosion in funds for government programs.

Instead, he seems content with campaign-sounding phrases such as “winning the future” and, for a leader of his intellect, Obama has yet to match former President Bill Clinton in explaining how government cuts can impact people. For example, last Friday and Saturday, having averted a government shutdown, Obama escaped into symbolism, posing in front of monuments that would be kept open by the National Park Service.

On the right, Republicans are still confident they can minimize their losses and win House passage without embarrassment to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). But beyond numbers, policy riders were an active part of the final negotiations between House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

No less than House Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) mounted a last-ditch — and unsuccessful —campaign to overturn surface mining stream protection rules opposed by the coal industry. And much to the dismay of environmental lawyers, Western lawmakers — well-represented on Appropriations -- were poised to win language that would overturn a 2010 federal court ruling related to what endangered species protection should continue for the expanding gray wolf population in the West.

At issue is a 2009 Fish and Wildlife Service ruling to effectively delist the wolf in five states — Oregon, Washington, Utah, Montana and Idaho -- that have their own wolf management plans. Montana and Idaho are the most important of the five, but the situation has been complicated legally by the failure of neighboring Wyoming to come up as of yet with a management plan that passes muster with the government.

Montana and Idaho lawmakers argue that they are prepared to protect the wolves as well as the federal government, but this is a major precedent nonetheless for Congress to step in and legislatively delist a species by overturning a court decision. And with an estimated 1,650 wolves now in the region, environmentalist worry that the state management plans are outdated and allow such a drastic reduction in the wolf population that years of progress in reestablishing the species could be lost.