GOP Task Force Drafts Budget Bill; Proposes Department Eliminations

During the last session of Congress, a group of House Republicans joined together to develop their own plan to reduce the federal deficit. This ad hoc group, the GOP Balanced Budget Task Force, now boasts over 60 GOP representatives. Working independently of the House Budget Committee, the Task Force, chaired by Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY), has just come out with draft legislation to balance the budget in five years. “Restructuring Government Through Balancing the Budget,” released on May 4, proclaims that it is “a preliminary draft of one way Congress could get from where we are to where the taxpayers want us to be.”

The bill proposes to amass a total of $815.0 billion in savings from projected spending over the next five years. The savings are achieved by various means, from eliminating, cutting, or restructuring some programs, to freezing or slowing the growth of others.

The Task Force would attain its largest savings, $105.41 billion, by reforming Medicare. The second largest source of savings, $97.42 billion, would be in Health programs, including freezing NIH funding for three years and cutting $0.9 billion from federally-sponsored health-related university research.

Savings from the “Science, Space and Technology” budget function would total $12.46 billion over the five years, obtained by:

- Freezing the federal account for General Science and Research activities, for a savings of $0.32 billion; - Limiting the growth rate of the National Science Foundation, for $0.32 billion; - Imposing an unspecified NSF Grant Application Fee, for $0.02 billion; - Canceling the Space Station, for $10.4 billion; - Canceling the National Aerospace Plane, for $0.2 billion; and - Reducing funding for High Performance Computing and Communications, for $1.2 billion.

Within the Department of Energy, the Atomic Vapor Isotope Separation (AVLIS) program would be terminated to save $0.5 billion, with additional cuts, elimination, or privatization of such programs as power administrations, petroleum reserves, and energy conservation.

Under the Department of Commerce, NIST’s Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is targeted for abolishment, for a savings of $0.8 billion.

Environmental programs slated for termination include the U.S. Geological Survey, for a savings of $3.3 billion, and the National Biological Survey, saving $0.14 billion.

Within the Department of Education, proposals include reducing “Untargeted Funding for Math and Science programs,” to save $1.2 billion.

The bill makes cuts to almost everything the federal government does, including: National Defense; International Affairs; Science, Space and Technology; Energy; Environment; Agriculture; Commerce and Housing; Transportation; Commercial Development; Education; Health; Medicare; Income Security; Veterans’ Benefits; Administration of Justice; and general government. Coupled with Welfare Reform, the proposal estimates that it would achieve a savings over five years of $815.0 billion to bring the federal budget into balance.

In addition, there is more yet to come. Next week, the Task Force plans to complete additional legislation, including possible proposals to abolish the Energy, Education, Commerce, and HUD departments. How this will affect science and technology programs within those departments is not yet known.

On the premise that the best defense is a good offense, Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary is taking actions of her own to try to avoid elimination of her Department. She announced on May 3 that DOE would achieve a savings of $1.7 billion by cutting its workforce by 27 percent over five years. In addition, O’Leary hopes to save several billion dollars more through additional actions, such as selling several electric power agencies and the National Petroleum Reserves. According to press reports, O’Leary announced she was “cutting the crap” to save the science, technology, national security, and environmental clean-up programs. Rep. George Brown (D-CA), ranking Democratic member of the House Science Committee, called her proposals “a perfect example of how we can move to make responsible cuts without sacrificing more of our diminishing national science and technology capability.” But Science Committee chairman Robert Walker (R-PA), while commending O’Leary, added that “a reevaluation of DOE programs, and perhaps even the existence of the department itself, will have to be a part of a balanced budget effort. The Department of Energy has provided a useful first step, but reorganization is not the end of the walk.”