WP: House Panel Receives Detailed Spending Plan for '06

[Pirate Smile]

House Panel Receives Detailed Spending Plan for '06
Legislators Among Groups Marked for Increased Funds as Ax Falls on Environmental Programs

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 6, 2005; Page A02

Federal land conservation and environmental programs would bear the brunt of budget cuts next year under budget limits sent to the House Appropriations Committee's spending panels yesterday.

After months of debate over the broad terms of the fiscal 2006 budget, the new allocations spell out more specifically what programs would be cut and which would be increased when the House Appropriations Committee takes up its 11 discretionary spending bills. Among the winners are Congress itself, which would receive a 4.9 percent increase, the third largest after the allocations for a cluster of departments including Transportation, Treasury and Housing, and another group of programs for veterans and military quality of life.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will follow with its allocations, probably next week, a committee spokeswoman said.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) restored some of the money that President Bush would have cut from domestic programs by holding down Bush's requested increases in defense spending and foreign aid. Under Lewis's allocations, defense spending will rise by $11 billion over this year, but that is $3.3 billion less than Bush wanted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/05/AR2005050501579.html