Senate halts House plans for legislative branch layoffs

Looking to avoid the political pitfall that befell House appropriators after proposing cuts to the Capitol Police and congressional staff, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal year 2001 legislative branch spending bill Thursday that provides increases to all the measure's agencies.

The bill, which was approved on a 28-0 vote, would provide more than $1.72 billion (excluding House items), a 3.7 percent increase over fiscal 2000.

Subcommittee Chairman Robert Bennett, R-Utah, blasted the House, which has reported a bill that would make deep cuts to every single agency under the bill's jurisdiction, including the Capitol Police, the Congressional Budget Office, the General Accounting Office and the Library of Congress.

In contrast, while Bennett said his allocation was "difficult," he nevertheless provided every agency with an increase over current-year levels. "We have put increases in every single component of the bill. Some are only one-tenth of one percent, but they are increases," Bennett said.

Bennett declared that the Senate was prepared to "do great battle with the House" over its decision to slash legislative branch spending by 4 percent below last year-including a whopping 12 percent cut to the Capitol Police force.

Bennett called House plans to reduce the presence of police officers in hearing rooms "demonstrably, a bad idea," especially in light of an incident Wednesday at a House Agriculture Committee hearing, where a man threatened to kill himself unless allowed to speak on trade relations with China.

By comparison, Bennett's bill would boost spending for the police force by 26 percent. Bennett noted that the bill includes language that would move forward with the idea of consolidating the Capitol Police force with police officers dedicated to the Government Printing Office and the Library of Congress. The bill would order the General Accounting Office to study the proposed consolidation before any such move could be instituted. Bennett said he thought the proposal could result in more manpower and increased savings.

The decision to restore funds for the legislative branch received kudos from most of the senators in attendance, all of whom bashed the House Republican leadership for its decision to slash legislative branch spending to make room for other GOP priorities.

Full Committee Ranking Member Robert Byrd, D-W.V., said he was "shocked by the draconian" cuts in the House. "How could anyone be so short-sighted to make cuts in the security of this Capitol?" Byrd said.

The panel approved only one amendment at the Thursday markup-a manager's amendment offered by Bennett that added report language requested by several senators but made no changes to allocations granted under the measure. The language was approved on a voice vote.

The bill would provide the following amounts under the bill:

• $506.4 million for the Senate, up 3.9 percent from fiscal 2000.
• $109.6 million for Capitol Police, up 26 percent from current-year funds.
• $27 million for the Congressional Budget Office, a 3.8 percent increase over fiscal 2000.
• $173.3 million for the Architect of the Capitol, a 0.1 percent increase over fiscal 2000.
• $399 million for the Library of Congress, a 1.2 percent increase from current-year funds.
• $103.6 million for the Government Printing Office, a 0.4 percent increase over fiscal 2000.
• $384.9 million for the General Accounting Office, a 1.9 percent increase over current-year funds.