Cuts from A to Z: spelling out deficit reduction.

AuthorHenderson, Rick

PRESIDENT CLINTON'S ANNOUNCEment that the 1994 budget deficit would reach "only" $180 billion--a figure 40-percent smaller than projected last year--hasn't dampened spending-cut fever on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan group of House members is pushing a bill that could eviscerate most pork-barrel programs.

Last August, Rep. William Zeliff (R-N.H.) asked Speaker Tom Foley (D-Wash.) for a special session of Congress to propose additional cuts to the current budget. A majority of the 435 House members--160 Republicans and 74 Democrats--signed Zeliff's letter to Foley. When the speaker did not respond, Zeliff joined with Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) to propose HR 3266, the "A to Z Spending Cut Program."

This bill would require a special session of Congress to consider spending cuts. Each member would have the opportunity to propose cuts in a single federal program or a package of cuts in different agencies. Each proposal would then be debated on the floor, and an on-record, up-or-down vote would follow.

Zeliff legislative assistant Chip Griffin suggests it will be difficult to pass packages that simultaneously cut several programs. Instead, he predicts that most of the proposals will seek to cut or eliminate one item in the budget, say, the $5 million to build a parliament building...

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