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White House threatens to veto Republican DOT, HUD budget
The White House threatened to veto a $51.6 billion budget for the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development that is being considered by Republicans in the House.
The House Appropriations Committee's Transportation, Housing and Urban Development budget for fiscal 2013 is $1.9 billion less than President Obama requested for transportation and housing earlier this year. It contains a $3.9 billion reduction for the department agencies from 2012 spending.
The White House said Thursday that the proposal violated the 2011 Budget Control Act.
"The BCA created a framework for more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction and provided tight spending caps that would bring discretionary spending to a minimum level needed to preserve critical national priorities," the White House said in a statement of administration policy.
"Departing from the bipartisan agreement reached in the BCA and departing from these caps, the House of Representatives put forward a top-line discretionary funding level for fiscal 2013 that, for example, would cost jobs and hurt average Americans, especially seniors, veterans and children — as well as degrade many of the basic government services on which the American people rely, such as air traffic control and law enforcement," the statement continued. "In addition, these cuts were made in the context of a budget that fails the test of balance, fairness and shared responsibility by giving millionaires and billionaires a tax cut and paying for it through deep cuts, including to discretionary programs."
Among the objections to the proposal listed by the White House was a lack of funding for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants. Obama requested $500 million for the TIGER program, but the White House said the House T-HUD budget proposal did not contain the money.
The White House also said it objected to the House's decision not to include money for high-speed railways in the transportation portion of the bill. House Republicans voted last year to zero out funding for high-speed rail.
In the housing portion of the appropriation bill, the White House said it "strongly objects to the bill's failure to fund the FY 2013 budget request of $150 million for Choice Neighborhoods."
"Absent this funding, public housing authorities and other local entities would have no resources to support the revitalization of distressed HUD-assisted housing or improve economic development and job opportunities in the surrounding neighborhoods for low-income families," the White House statement said.
Other issues with the housing portions of the bill listed by the White House included the lack of funding for sustainable communities programs and homeless assistance grants.
Republicans have argued the T-HUD budget proposal makes "smart investments" in transportation and housing development.
"This bill targets taxpayer dollars where they can be best used to improve the reliability, safety and efficiency of our transportation systems, while also holding the line on spending to help reduce the nation’s growing deficits,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said in a statement earlier this month when the measure was released.
