House GOP chair blasts Education spending cuts

With House GOP leaders insisting on fiscal 2000 spending cuts, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman William F. Goodling, R-Pa., spoke out at Wednesday's GOP Conference meeting against anticipated cuts in education programs.

Under the FY2000 budget cap, the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee must cut more than $10 billion from current discretionary spending.

"I continue to be concerned about funding for education programs and have expressed that concern to members of the leadership," Goodling said in response to questions from CongressDaily. "Anticipated cuts ... will be detrimental to our efforts to focus on teacher excellence, access to quality education for disadvantaged and disabled students and improved academic achievement for all students."

Last month, Goodling, Education and the Workforce Postsecondary Education, Training and Life-Long Learning Subcommittee Chairman Howard (Buck) McKeon, R-Calif., and Early Childhood, Youth and Families Subcommittee Chairman Michael Castle, R-Del., wrote to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, saying, "We have fought for increased funding for programs that we have reauthorized because we believe these programs are vital to the children of this country [and] would be deeply concerned to see this trend reversed." GOP leadership aides said the problem can be worked out.

Meanwhile, Appropriations Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said his committee will not mark up the FY2000 Treasury-Postal spending bill until Congress returns from the July 4 recess, although it will mark up the $8.5 billion Military Construction appropriations bill and the $14.1 billion Interior bill Thursday.

GOP leaders postponed last month's scheduled Treasury-Postal markup after subcommittee ranking member Steny Hoyer, D-Md., threatened to offer gun control amendments to the bill.

The House's failure to pass gun control legislation earlier this month has Democrats pinning their hopes on action in the conference committee. A Hoyer spokeswoman said he is "keeping his options open" to again offer his amendments if Hastert "does not appoint conferees in a timely manner."

Also holding up the bill is the $240 million appropriators want to cut to keep the Treasury-Postal bill to the FY99 spending level. Hoyer said Tuesday: "I don't think [Democrats] can support $200 million. ... It's a very tight bill as it is."

At the same time, Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he could cut up to $731 million from the bill. Among the cuts Coburn has suggested are $22.7 million from the Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund, $196 million from IRS processing, $29 million from IRS tax law enforcement, $140 million from IRS information systems and $3.7 million from federal drug control programs.

But appropriators say the IRS funds are mandated by last year's IRS reform bill and predicted Republicans would not support cutting law enforcement and anti-drug funds.