The House Appropriations Committee released allocation targets that the 12 subcommittees should work toward.
The appropriations committee has proposed a $1.028 trillion discretionary spending target for fiscal 2013, a figure proposed by the House budget committee in March. If agreed to, the allocations would eventually impact funding to federal agencies.
Last week, the Senate proposed a $1.047 trillion discretionary spending target set by the 2011 Budget Control Act, which concluded last year’s debt ceiling crisis.
“The levels provided for each of the 12 Appropriations bills will continue to demonstrate how seriously this House takes its charge to rein in extraneous and unnecessary spending,” said Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the panel.
The proposal includes $519.2 billion in defense spending, an $8 billion increase over the Senate proposal, as well as cuts to social programs.
“These subcommittee numbers are based on an overall allocation that reneges on our hard-fought agreement for discretionary spending in the Budget Control Act,” said Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), the committee’s top Democrat.
Appropriations has proposed the following allocations to its subcommittees (with Senate proposals in parentheses):
●Agriculture – $19.405 billion ($20.8 billion)
●Commerce/Justice/Science – $51.1 billion ($51.9 billion)
●Defense – $519.22 billion ($511.2 billion)
●Energy and Water Development – $32.1 billion ($33.4 billion)
●Financial Services and General Government – $21.15 billion ($23 billion)
●Homeland Security – $39.1 billion ($39.5 billion)
●Interior, Environment – $28 billion ($29.7 billion)
●Labor, Health and Human Services – $150 billion ($157.7 billion)
●Legislative Branch – $4.3 billion ($4.4 billion)
●Military Construction/Veterans Affairs – $71.7 billion ($72.2 billion)
●State/Foreign Operations – $40.1 billion ($49.8 billion)
●Transportation, Housing and Urban Development – $51.6 billion ($53.4 billion)
The committee will vote on the proposal Wednesday. Dicks will ask the committee to reject the figures.
