CR Spending Cuts Confusion
Monday, April 18, 2011
CR Spending Cuts Confusion
Many people have contacted my office regarding the spending cuts
contained in H.R. 1473, which funds the government through the
remainder of FY 2011 and averts a government shutdown. Due to
ambiguous and sometimes misleading press reports, there is some
confusion regarding how much spending this bill cuts. I
wanted to make sure you had the facts.
When dealing with the federal budget, Congress works in budget
authority. Budget authority is the amount Congress allows the
Treasury to spend. H.R. 1473 reduces the budget authority
amount by nearly $45 billion (non-defense gross cuts) and nearly
$40 billion in net cuts from FY 2010.
- Total Discretionary Spending in FY 2011:
$1,089,671,000 Trillion
- Total Discretionary Spending for FY 2011 assuming enactment of
H.R. 1473: $1,049,794,000 Trillion
Spending is cut by nearly $40 billion from FY
2010 levels ($39.877 billion to be exact.) The
passage of H.R. 1473 will result in the largest federal spending
cut since World War II.
At the end of the day, these historic spending cuts and billions
in earlier cuts to keep the government open means that FY 2011
spending is $78.5 billion less than what President Obama requested
to spend in the fiscal year that ends in September.
I posted an article from The Weekly Standard, in the "In Case
You Missed It" section of my webpage which also tries to clear up
the confusion:
http://latourette.house.gov/news/headline-news/budget-confusion.aspx
ShareThis