White House details proposed program cuts

The White House on Friday revealed the details of a plan to make a nearly $20 billion dent in the deficit by eliminating or scaling back ineffective and low-priority federal programs.

In his $2.57 trillion fiscal 2006 budget request, President Bush asked lawmakers to end 99 discretionary programs and substantially reduce funding for another 55. The Education Department would sustain the highest number of terminations, followed by the Justice Department. The major reductions in funding would hit the Agriculture Department the hardest.

"Combined with continuation of pro-growth economic policies, the spending restraint this package of savings and reforms enables will keep us on track to meet the president's goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009," an Office of Management and Budget report outlining the recommended cuts stated.

Congress could deliver net savings of $17.2 billion by heeding the White House's recommendations, according to the report. Of that, $8.8 billion would derive from program terminations and $6.5 billion would stem from reductions in funding. Program overhauls would produce an additional $1.9 billion in savings, taking the administrative costs of the suggested reforms into account.

Bush mentioned the cuts in his Feb. 2 State of the Union speech, and OMB Director Joshua Bolten provided savings estimates when he unveiled the administration's budget last week. But the White House declined to release a comprehensive list of the program cuts until Friday.

The president's proposal would place 48 Education programs and nine Justice programs on the chopping block. Lawmakers granted the Education programs a total of $4.3 billion in fiscal 2005 appropriations, and the Justice programs a total of $1.5 billion.

Agriculture programs would absorb $2.5 billion in cuts.

Programs slated for elimination or cuts fell short in one of three areas, the White House report stated. The programs generally didn't justify the use of federal tax dollars; failed to further the top national priorities of strengthening the armed forces, bolstering homeland security, promoting economic opportunity or fostering compassion; or received poor grades on performance evaluations.

For instance, a think tank study indicated that Upward Bound, a roughly $300 million Education Department program intended to help at-risk high school students graduate and enroll in postsecondary classes, is ineffective, the OMB report stated. A similar Education program called GEAR UP is more effective, but targets too narrow a population of students, the White House concluded.

Under the 2006 budget proposal, Upward Bound, GEAR UP and five other high school education programs that are narrow in scope and generally "lack strong accountability mechanisms and have failed to demonstrate measurable results despite decades of investment" would be eliminated. A $1.5 billion "High School Initiative" designed to boost attainment and graduation rates would meet the same needs in a more cost-effective manner, the White House report stated.

But OMB will likely have a tough time convincing Congress to accept all of Bush's recommendations. Of the 99 programs, 59 are repeats from last year. The White House also proposed 27 of the 55 reductions in funding last year.

The suggestions for restructuring programs--slated to produce $1.9 billion in net savings--are also unlikely to glide through Congress. Lawmakers are already airing concerns about a proposal to save $420 million by distributing state and local homeland security grants based entirely on risk and vulnerability to attack.

For a complete list of the programs Bush proposed cutting, refer to OMB's Feb. 11 report: "Major Savings and Reforms in the President's 2006 Budget."