House chair calls for cuts in unauthorized programs

To the consternation of many of his colleagues, new House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, opened his first hearing Wednesday by suggesting that funding for many of the health programs the committee oversees should be cut.

Barton said a preliminary staff analysis has found that 93 health programs are currently being funded by appropriators without a formal authorization. "I don't think that's a responsible practice," he told the hearing's lone witness, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. "From my perspective, programs without authorizations should not receive the same funding priority" as other programs, Barton said.

Among the programs whose authorizations have lapsed are major portions of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, much of the Health Resources and Services Administration and parts of the Indian Health Service. Some programs, like the Title X family planning program, have not been reauthorized since the 1980s.

Thompson said he agreed that the programs "should be reauthorized -- in a systematic way."

While appropriators and GOP leaders in the House and Senate have been discussing trimming the budget by cracking down on unauthorized programs, Energy and Commerce Democrats were surprised that Barton would add his voice to the effort.

"I don't know what he's thinking," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "We'd be slitting our throats by saying 'Don't fund these programs we haven't gotten around to reauthorizing.' "

Public health programs "are all underfunded to begin with," said Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee ranking member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. "President Bush's tax cuts have made it very hard to fund health programs."