House budget-cutters back aviation spending boost

Since last month, leaders of the House Conservative Action Team have been pushing appropriators and the Republican leadership for more cuts in next year's spending bills-with a goal of keeping FY2000 spending under the $538 billion budget cap.

Yet, several CATs Tuesday voted against an amendment by Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., and Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, to rein in off-budget spending in Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster's aviation bill. Even more conservatives, despite calling for fiscal austerity in discretionary appropriations, voted for the Airport Improvement and Reform Act for the 21st Century and the roughly $73 billion-$14 billion over the budget resolution's five-year baseline-it would secure for aviation spending.

While the most vocal advocates of slashing appropriations-including Reps. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Mark Sanford and Lindsey Graham, both R-S.C., Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., and Joe Scarborough, R-Fla.-voted for Young-Kasich and against AIR-21, other leading CATs voted with Shuster. Among the CATs who voted against Young- Kasich were: Reps. John Doolittle, R-Calif., Steve Largent, R- Okla., Mark Souder and Dan Burton, both R-Ind., James Talent, R- Mo., Jim DeMint, R-S.C., Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho. Largent and Chenoweth joined other CATs, however, voting no on final passage.

The Young-Kasich amendment failed, 248-179, while AIR-21 passed 316-110. Conservatives who voted against Young-Kasich said they did so because they support Shuster's move to take the aviation trust fund off-budget.

Since the aviation trust fund is paid for with the airline ticket tax, Souder said, "It is dishonest to raise the airport fee and then go use it on some social program or Kosovo." Any revenue from a dedicated tax, DeMint said, should be reserved for the use it is supposed to fund.

On the appropriations front, Sanford, who is heading the CATs' effort to further cut the $50.7 billion Transportation appropriations bill, acknowledged that the spending firewalls created in last year's highway bill make "that bill very difficult to get at. The bulk of it we can't go after."

With all highway spending now protected, only $14.58 billion in the Transportation spending bill-which primarily funds the FAA, Coast Guard and Amtrak-can be cut. Sanford said CATs are "trying to avoid the politically sensitive areas," such as money for Coast Guard drug interdiction and FAA airline safety programs. And slashing funds for Amtrak, popular in the Northeast, could sink the bill.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., a member of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, said, "There's not much left to the bill" to cut, but he added, "When you look at any bill under a microscope, you can always find good targets."