2006 Cuts In Domestic Spending On Table

Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post

The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if
President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending
cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs,
including education, homeland security and others that the president
backed in this campaign year.Administration officials had dismissed the significance of the
proposed cuts when they surfaced in February as part of an internal
White House budget office computer printout. At the time, officials
said the cuts were based on a formula and did not accurately reflect
administration policy. But a May 19 White House budget memorandum
obtained by The Washington Post said that agencies should assume the
spending levels in that printout when they prepare their fiscal 2006
budgets this summer.

"Assume accounts are funded at the 2006 level specified in the 2005
Budget database," the memo informs federal program associate
directors and their deputies. "If you propose to increase funding
above that level for any account, it must be offset within your
agency by proposing to decrease funding below that level in other
accounts."

J.T. Young, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and
Budget, said the memo, titled "Planning Guidance for the FY 2006
Budget," is a routine "process document" to help agency officials
begin establishing budget procedures for 2006. In no way should it be
interpreted as a final policy decision, or even a planning document,
he said.

"Agencies have asked for this sort of direction," Young said.
"Budgeting is basically a year-long process, and you have to start
somewhere. They'll get more guidance as the year goes along."

The funding levels referred to in the memo would be a tiny slice out
of the federal budget -- $2.3 billion, or 0.56 percent, out of the
$412.7 billion requested for fiscal 2005 for domestic programs and
homeland security that is subject to Congress's annual discretion.

But the cuts are politically sensitive, targeting popular programs
that Bush has been touting on the campaign trail. The Education
Department; a nutrition program for women, infants and children; Head
Start; and homeownership, job-training, medical research and science
programs all face cuts in 2006.

"Despite [administration] denials, this memorandum confirms what we
suspected all along," said Thomas S. Kahn, Democratic staff director
on the House Budget Committee. "Next February, the administration
plans to propose spending cuts in key government services to pay for
oversized tax cuts."

But with the budget deficit exceeding $400 billion this year, tough
and painful cuts are unavoidable, said Brian M. Riedl, a budget
analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Federal agencies' discretionary spending has risen 39 percent in the
past three years. "I think the public is ready for spending cuts,"
Riedl said. "Not only does the public understand there's a lot of
waste in the federal budget, but the public is ready to make
sacrifices during the war on terror."

The administration has widely touted a $1.7 billion increase in
discretionary funding for the Education Department in its 2005
budget, but the 2006 guidance would pare that back by $1.5 billion.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is scheduled to get a $519 million
spending increase in 2005, to $29.7 billion, and a $910 million cut
in 2006 that would bring its budget below the 2004 level.

Also slated for cuts are the Environmental Protection Agency, the
National Science Foundation, the Small Business Administration, the
Transportation Department, the Social Security Administration, the
Interior Department and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Agencies would have the option of preserving current funding levels
for programs under their control if they find money from other parts
of their budget. But the computer printout contains specific program
cuts.

The Women, Infants and Children nutrition program was funded at $4.7
billion for the fiscal year beginning in October, enough to serve the
7.9 million people expected to be eligible. But in 2006, the program
would be cut by $122 million. Head Start, the early-childhood
education program for the poor, would lose $177 million, or 2.5
percent of its budget, in fiscal 2006.

The $78 million funding increase that Bush has touted for a
homeownership program in 2005 would be nearly reversed in 2006 with a
$53 million cut. National Institutes of Health spending would be cut
2.1 percent in 2006, to $28 billion, after a $764 million increase
for 2005 that brought the NIH budget to $28.6 billion.

Even homeland security -- a centerpiece of the Bush reelection
campaign -- would be affected. Funding would slip in 2006 by $1
billion, to $29.6 billion, although that would still be considerably
higher than the $26.6 billion devoted to that field in 2004,
according to an analysis of the computer printout by House Budget
Committee Democrats.

Publicly, the administration has been dismissive of such figures. In
February, Young said spending levels beyond 2005 were generated by a
computer after administration policymakers set a growth limit of 3
percent for all programs, including defense, but set out multiyear
decisions for only a handful of major initiatives.

Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige told House members in February:
"It is my understanding that long-term estimates are calculated by
formula. OMB has advised us that the numbers beyond 2005 do not
reflect detailed policy decisions by this administration. They are
roughly held estimates, and so we will have to await the policy
decisions to draw conclusions about what the funding level will be in
years outside or years in front of 2005."

The May 19 memo contains no such caveats.

"Continuing the strategy of last year's Budget, the 2006 Budget will
constrain discretionary and mandatory spending while supporting
national priorities: winning the war on terror, protecting the
homeland, and strengthening the economy," the memo states.