Appropriations

President Barack Obama announced 66 Recovery Act projects Friday aimed at expanding broadband Internet access and public computing centers in underserved communities at a cost of $795 million.

Three House Republicans on Thursday released a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing that 9 percent of households in seven states are improperly receiving funds from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) totaling $116 million a year.

"It looks like a ton of LIHEAP money was distributed to con artists who applied under the names of convicts and the dead," said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) in prepared remarks. "Even some people living in million-dollar houses got their utility bills paid for by the taxpayer."

Barton is the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He and Reps. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) requested that the GAO investigate the matter.

The House Appropriations subcommittee approved by voice vote Thursday a fiscal 2011 $3.65 billion spending measure for the legislative branch, $6.8 million below last year's amount. 

The measure also is $337 million below the White House request. 

"This bill reflects an acknowledgment that the legislative branch must set itself as an example for fiscal constraint while continuing to serve the nation," said subpanel Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). 

The measure includes $1.37 billion for the House of Representatives — an increase of only $5 million — $44.8 million below the amount requested.

The spending bill calls for withholding $10 million from the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer until several changes are made, including regular meetings scheduled with major staff organizations and a user satisfaction survey is implemented for the Office of Payroll and Benefits and the Office of Financial Counseling. Also, wireless service must be improved in the Capitol Visitor Center.

A House subcommittee approved Thursday a fiscal 2011 $67.4 billion bill, $500 million below last year's level.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved the measure that is $1.3 billion below the White House's request. This is the sixth bill approved in the past two weeks. 

Republicans expressed concern over the total cost of the measure and lack of significant cuts in spending. 

"The $500 million reduction in this legislation is a drop in the bucket of where we need to go to bring this bill back into a reasonable state," said subcommittee ranking member Tom Latham (R-Iowa). "We need to reduce the spending in this bill, save the taxpayers a few dollars and bring some transparency to the bureaucratic operations of these departments."

Under the bill, the Federal Aviation Administration would receive $16.5 billion for operations, capital, research and airport grant programs. A total of $1.16 billion would go toward the NextGen program, a satellite-based air traffic control system. 

For transportation initiatives, the bill provides $45.2 billion for the Federal Highway Administration, an increase of $3.9 billion above the White House request.

House Democrats will try to use money from their $862 billion stimulus to help pay for education spending in a supplemental appropriations bill.

The package crafted by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) would include $10 billion to help states and local governments avoid teacher layoffs, $5 billion for Pell Grant funding and $701 million to increase security at the Mexican border.

House Democratic leaders plan to call votes this week on a spending bill that has about $33 billion for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and $10 billion to help states and local governments avoid teacher layoffs.

House Majority Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said votes on the war money and domestic spending would be separate and would happen by Friday. Democrats are hoping Republicans would back the war money, which has been greeted with heavy doses of skepticism from liberal Democrats.

The House on Tuesday is slated to vote on legislation extending aviation programs, taxes and expenditure authority through Aug. 1.

All earmarks in the proposed Homeland Security spending bill for 2011 went to Democrats — save one.

A senior House Democrat is cutting nearly $4 billion in foreign aid for Afghanistan out of an upcoming spending bill because of concerns over government corruption.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) will strip more than $3.9 billion from the measure, leaving only foreign aid for humanitarian programs in Afghanistan in the 2011 State and Foreign Operations spending bill that appropriators plan to consider Wednesday afternoon.

The death of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) leaves open the chairmanship of the powerful Senate panel that oversees homeland security spending.

Byrd, who passed away Monday, had the gavel of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for Homeland Security, which oversees annual funding for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration, among other Department of Homeland Security agencies.