THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release January 10, 2000
OMB Communications Office
FACT SHEET:
0.38 percent cuts
January 10, 2000
History:
- Last fall, in the course of the appropriations process, the Congressional majority considered an across-the board cut of several percentage points, applying equally to all areas of government regardless of priority. The Administration made its opposition clear. Then, on October 28, the Congress passed a one percent across- the-board cut to all areas of government as part of the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill.
- The Administration successfully fought against this cut in the budget negotiations on two fronts: 1) reducing the size of the cut to 0.38 percent and 2) gaining the flexibility to implement it with Administration discretion to protect the highest priority areas of government, and to target savings from lower priority areas.
Administration Approach:
- The law stipulated that 0.38 percent in savings needed to come from each and every Department. However, within each department, it provided latitude to protect high-priority programs as long as the dollar figure amounting to 0.38 percent was achieved provided certain other conditions, described below, were met.
- OMB provided guidance regarding general principles the Agencies should use to identify cuts:
- The 0.38 cut must not be imposed across the board, but targeted to reflect areas of higher and lower priority;
- Reductions need to come from least critical funding;
- Reductions should be considered from funding that Congress enacted above the President's request;
- Wherever possible, no reductions in force from personnel.
The law also imposed the condition that no reduction in any
single program could
exceed 15% of its total. In other words, the law did not
permit an entire program to be eliminated in order to count
toward the savings necessary for a given department. At
least 85% of the funding total for the program had to remain
intact.
- Department of Defense: The law required that Department of Defense funding, like all other agencies, be cut by 0.38 percent, but exempted DoD's military personnel pay and benefit accounts. The law also required cuts be applied equally to all other DoD accounts.
Administration Actions to Achieve 0.38 percent Cut
Total Savings (amounting to 0.38 percent)= $2.356 billion
Savings from Congressional Earmarks = $478 million
Number of Earmarked Projects Targeted by Cut: 2, 372 projects
Savings from Salaries and Expenses = $192.5 million
Savings from Cuts to Programs = $1.7 billion
Examples of Programs Fully Protected by Administration
Military Recruiting and Readiness New Classroom Teachers Head Start Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program Child Care and Development Block Grant CDC Immunizations CDC Infectious Disease Family Planning Ryan White Clean Water Action Plan Superfund Lands Legacy FBI agents ATF Youth Gun Initiatives FAA Air Traffic Controllers and all other safety functions Secret Service Salaries and Expenses
Departments with Largest Numbers of Earmarks:
Transportation: There were cuts to 584 earmarked projects, amounting
to savings of $61 million, out of total cuts to DOT of
$180 million.
Housing and Urban Development: There were cuts to 472 earmarked
projects, amounting to, out of total cuts to HUD of
$91 million.
Environmental Protection Agency: There were cuts to 316 earmarked
projects, amounting to savings of 23 million out of
total cuts to EPA of $29 million.
The law stipulated that reductions to any single program area, including earmarked projects, could not exceed 15%. However, Administration cuts to earmarked projects generally were applied at a lower level, in the 7 percent to 8 percent range.