Legislators rip OMB chief; supplemental stalled

After postponing a planned meeting of House-Senate conferees on the fiscal 2002 supplemental appropriations bill over last-minute objections from the White House that the bill was too expensive, appropriators Friday let their frustrations fly--taking aim at Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels.

In a rare occurrence on the Senate floor, Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., referred to Daniels by name, calling him a "big mouth" who has "mangled, mauled and murdered the appropriations process."

While Byrd took time to say he liked Daniels "personally," he did not hold back in his criticisms of Daniels, who already had a sour relationship with appropriators. "Upon what meat doth this, our little Caesar feed?" seethed Byrd.

Appropriations ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, went so far as to say President Bush was "ill-served" by Daniels. "I'm up to here with this, and people know I've got a short fuse anyway," said Stevens.

Thursday night, on the eve of the planned formal conference, Daniels came to Capitol Hill looking to trim the legislation, which was preliminarily set at $30.37 billion, to the House- passed level of $28.8 billion as scored by OMB.

But after receiving a list of proposed reductions Friday, Daniels' lack of specifics and his opposition to programs lawmakers deemed important infuriated Byrd and other appropriators--who said he was wrongfully interfering with Congress' ability to legislate.

"It's time we have an understanding of what Congress' role is in the appropriations process," said Stevens, who criticized OMB for having a "top-line mentality" where there was more concern for the price tag of the bill than its contents.

House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., agreed: "They look at the numbers and if they don't add up, they don't agree. In Congress, we are obligated to be concerned about what the numbers do."

House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., also joined in, saying: "What the White House is trying to do is have us attach Enron-style accounting gimmicks to pretend this bill is not what it is. It's unfortunate that they are trying to do this at the same time that kind of practice is wreaking havoc on the markets."

Responding to the criticism, an OMB spokesman said a "top line" approach of insisting on a limit for the supplemental is appropriate. "A top line mentality is the taxpayer's mentality - if we're ever going to get to a balanced budget, we've got to restrain the growth in spending," he said.

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman Larry Craig of Idaho defended Daniels, characterizing the supplemental as being "almost too heavy to lift ... For every $1 billion we don't spend, we save those taxpayers money."

At a briefing Friday, Young, Stevens, and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., blasted the specific cuts proposed by Daniels.

Among them were cuts of $80 million in embassy security funding, $150 million to renovate the Pentagon, $100 million for Amtrak, $50 million in aid for Jordan and Pakistan, another $220 million for the Transportation Security Administration and--most offensive of all, to them--about $400 million in general defense spending.

"I'm not prepared to agree to that cut in national defense," said Young.