| WASHINGTON – The Democratic-controlled
House approved $410 billion legislation Wednesday that boosted domestic
programs, bristled with earmarks and chipped away at policies left behind by
the Bush administration. The vote was 245-178, largely along party lines.
Republicans assailed the measure as too costly — particularly on the
heels of a $787 billion stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed
last week. But Democrats jabbed back.
"The same people who drove the economy into the ditch are now complaining
about the size of the tow truck," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.,
pointing out the large increase in deficits that President George W. Bush
and GOP-controlled Congresses amassed.
From the GOP side, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas said the legislation was
"going to grow the government 8.3 percent ... but the family budget which
has to pay for the federal budget only grew at 1.3 percent last year."
The debate occurred one day after Obama told Congress in a prime time
television address that he intends to cut deficits in half over the next
four years, and one day before he submits tax and spending plans for the
coming year. Given the extraordinary costs of the financial industry bailout
and the stimulus, the White House projects this year's budget shortfall will
be $1.5 trillion, triple the previous record of $455 billion in 2008.
In a symbolic bow to the recession, Democrats included in the spending
measure a prohibition on a cost-of-living increase for members of Congress
for the year.
Overall, the legislation would provided increases of roughly 8 percent
for the federal agencies it covered, about $32 billion more than last year.
The bill is intended to allow smooth functioning of the government
through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. The Senate has yet to vote on
its version.
After persuading lawmakers to keep earmarks off the stimulus bill, Obama
made no such attempt on the first non-emergency spending measure of his
presidency. The result was that lawmakers claimed billions in federal funds
for pet projects — a total of 8,570 earmarks at a cost of $7.7 billion,
according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Majority Democrats declined to
provide a number of earmarks, but said the cost was far smaller, $3.8
billion, 5 percent less than a year ago.
Among the earmarks was one sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., who
secured $200,000 for a "tattoo removal violence outreach program" in Los
Angeles. Aides said the money would pay for a tattoo removal machine that
could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past, and
anyone benefiting would be required to perform community service.
Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said the bill included at least a dozen earmarks
for clients of PMA Group, a lobbying company now at the center of a federal
corruption investigation.
"It's simply not responsible to allow a soon-to-be-criminally indicted
lobbying firm to win funding, all borrowed, in this bill," he said. No
charges have been filed against the firm or its principals, although the
company's offices were raided earlier this month, and it has announced plans
to disband by the end of the month.
Federal prosecutors are investigating PMA Group's founder and president,
Paul Magliochetti, who is a former top aide to Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.,
chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds defense
programs.
In remarks on the House floor, Republican leader John Boehner urged Obama
to veto the legislation, citing earmarks.
At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs responded only in
general terms whether that was possible.
"There is great concern in this building and by the president about
earmarks," Gibbs said. "Without having looked specifically at a piece of
legislation, I'm hesitant to throw out that four-letter word, `Veto.'"
After eight years without control of the White House, congressional
Democrats also used the legislation to target several policies of former
President Bush.
Under the bill, Mexican-licensed trucks are banned from operating outside
commercial zones along the border with the United States. The Teamsters
union, which supported Obama's election last year, had sought the move. The
Bush administration backed a pilot program to permit up to 500 trucks from
100 Mexican motor carriers access to U.S. roads.
Bush administration restrictions on travel to Cuba were loosened in the
legislation, to permit more frequent visits and expand the list of family
members permitted to make trips to see relatives on the Communist
nation-island.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., took aim at a provision that he said would
vastly broaden the government's ability to invoke the threat of climate
change to halt economic development. "Most all of the shovel-ready projects
on the trillion-dollar stimulus bill would in fact be at risk," he said.
Nominally, the provision halts implementation of a Bush-era regulation
that lists the polar bear as a threatened species, and Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.,
and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said it would merely
give the new administration 60 days to decide its fate.
Democrats also inserted a provision into the bill to end a program that
allows students in the District of Columbia to use federal funds to attend
private schools of their choice. Boehner, who helped establish the program
as part of a political bargain several years ago, called the move "hideous."
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