Harold Volkmer: “I rise today seeking an answer. The House Appropriations Committee is meeting this morning to mark up legislation that…”

“I rise today seeking an answer. The House Appropriations Committee is meeting this morning to mark up legislation that would rescind selected appropriations that were authorized for fiscal year 1995. My question is: How do they justify some of these rescissions that have been proposed by the appropriations subcommittees? We all realize that cuts have to be made in the Federal budget and that we have to rethink how we spend our constituents' tax dollars. But how can they be so mean-spirited as to make these cuts at the expense of the people we are trying to help. Discretionary programs for low-income people account for 12 percent or $64 billion of the Federal Government's total discretionary spending; but as a result of proposals made by the appropriations subcommittees, these programs would bear 63 percent or almost $11 billion of the cuts. Of $17.5 billion that was cut by appropriations committees last week, $14.9 billion were cut from five departments: Education, Health and Human Services, HUD, Labor, and VA. To my thinking, that is just mean. It looks to me that these cuts are intended to justify the tax cut for the wealthy that the Republicans promised in their Contract on America.”