Republicans Up the Ante, Pledge to Cut an Additional $26 Billion from Federal Agency Budgets

(National Federation of Federal Employees)

Responding to growing pressure from conservative members of the party, House Republicans yesterday announced that they will pursue an additional $26 billion in cuts to federal agency budgets this fiscal year. Combined with the $74 billion in cuts announced earlier this week, Republicans seek to keep their campaign promise by slashing agency budgets a total of $100 billion during first year in power.

“Let me be very clear about this: we are going to exceed our Pledge to America,” said Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), reiterating a campaign promise before the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday. “We are going to cut $100 billion in discretionary spending next week. Write it down. $100 billion in discretionary spending.”

Specifics as to which agencies will be targeted by this second round of cuts have yet to be released. According to recent reports on the matter, however, the GOP leadership is anticipated to release details later this afternoon.

“It couldn’t be any clearer that these proposed cuts are politically driven and non-strategic,” said NFFE Legislative Director Randy Erwin. “They honestly think that these are just numbers on a page.  Well, they’re not just numbers on a page. They are the critical services that federal agencies provide the American people. They are jobs.  They are resources for rural communities that depend on these resources for survival.  They are nurses at the bedside of veterans and firefighters controlling wildfires.  The decisions being made here impact all Americans.  It’s time for the House leadership to stop playing politics with our jobs and our livelihoods.”

Follow this story as it develops here on www.nffe.org.