A federal capital budget would skew funding toward buildings and away from investments in key areas like education, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said Friday.
"I've always thought we'd be better off without a capital budget," Rubin told the President's Commission to Study Capital Budgeting.
Rubin said it would be difficult to define what is a capital expenditure. In addition, because capital project funding could be stretched out over several years and program funding is required each year, departments might choose "nice new buildings" over program investments.
Rubin said, however, it is "nonsensical" to count buildings the same way as program spending is counted.
The commission, created by executive order to try to sway Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., to oppose the balanced budget constitutional amendment, is studying the idea of creating a separate capital budget.
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