DeLauro asks Biden Cabinet to estimate impact of House GOP’s proposed spending cuts
Samantha-Jo Roth
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Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, sent out letters to the heads of each federal agency on Thursday in an effort to measure the impact of freezing spending at fiscal 2022 levels, something House Republicans vowed to do once they took the majority in the lower chamber.
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) agreed to the demand for spending cuts put forward by a group of conservative House Republicans as a concession in his bid to become House speaker. In order to achieve this goal, Congress would have to cut about $130 billion in discretionary spending. It’s still unclear how Republicans will do this without seeking cuts to the Pentagon’s budget, although many insist the cuts come from non-defense programs.
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Republicans, eyeing a fight over the debt ceiling — something the White House says must be lifted “without conditions” — will first need to rally around a plan as the deadline to increase the borrowing limit approaches. Some are adamant about protecting military spending, while other lawmakers see those expenditures as fair game, at least marginally. The party will also need to decide if it wants to pursue changes to Social Security and Medicare, which many see as politically perilous.
In the letters to President Joe Biden’s Cabinet secretaries, DeLauro asks for an estimate of how the reductions would affect the communities they serve and the public by Feb. 3.
“My analysis indicates that taking discretionary spending back to the fiscal year 2022 level could roll back bipartisan efforts recently enacted to lower the cost of living for hard-working families; create better-paying jobs; support federal, state, and local law enforcement; strengthen our national security; and protect our environment,” DeLauro writes in her letter.
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During a press conference last week, DeLauro expressed concerns with the proposed cuts to what she called critical investments in “defense, national security, military readiness, and combat capabilities.”
“I make reference to service members and their families, the funds that they rely on, these are cuts to VA medical care, mental health services, homeless assistance programs that assure we reach unhoused veterans,” she said to reporters.