White House gives details on across-the-board cut

The White House has released preliminary details of how a 0.38 percent across-the-board cut will be applied to federal agencies' budgets this year.

Last fall, the budget agreement reached by Congress and the Clinton administration called for a 0.38 percent cut in the budgets of every federal agency. Congress gave the administration the responsibility of deciding how to implement reductions in each agency. The White House instructed agencies to avoid laying off personnel.

The budget agreement prevented the White House from cutting any one program by more than 15 percent and completely protected the salaries of military personnel.

Of the $2.4 billion that will be cut, about $478 million will come from projects Congress funded in the fiscal 2000 budget that were not requested by the Clinton administration. The White House targeted 2,372 congressionally earmarked projects for cuts of up to 15 percent.

The White House released a list of programs that were spared any budget cuts, including air traffic control services, Secret Service salaries and expenses, the immunizations and infectious disease programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and FBI agents' staffing levels.

In a letter to President Clinton last month, Republican congressional leaders said the across-the-board cut should be aimed at eliminating unnecessary spending.

"We believe that the federal government is too big, too bloated, and full of wasteful, fraudulent and abusive programs," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. "The across-the-board spending cut that was enacted this year was a serious effort to root out waste and fraud, and restore public confidence in our government."