GOP: All agencies should cut budgets by 1.4 percent

House Republican leaders pushed a 1.4 percent across-the-board spending cut as the way to balance the fiscal 2000 books without using surplus Social Security revenues as congressional appropriators and Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew began their first detailed meeting on the remaining fiscal 2000 appropriations bills Friday.

In a news conference Friday afternoon, House GOP leaders said the proposed 1.4 percent across-the-board cut in total fiscal 2000 discretionary spending would be aimed at "waste, fraud and abuse," and would be left to all executive branch agencies to decide how to make.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said agencies should have no problem identifying ways to cut their budgets by 1.4 percent.

Under the GOP plan, "every agency is instructed to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the administration of their programs," Armey said. "Who doubts that at least one percent of government spending gets wasted?"

At presstime, seven of the 13 annual spending bills were awaiting action. President Clinton Friday signed the Agriculture appropriations bill and he has until Tuesday to act on the Defense spending measure. Adopted by Congress but not yet sent to the White House are the Interior and Commerce-Justice-State spending measures, while the conference report on the revised District of Columbia bill and Labor-HHS measure will not be voted on until Tuesday. The Foreign Operations measure was vetoed this week, and a new version has not been written.