Obama budget chief slams first two GOP spending bills

Obama administration budget chief Shaun Donovan on Tuesday slammed two GOP-sponsored spending bills for not fulfilling the president’s requests and containing “ideological” riders.

Donovan, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, expressed his concerns in letters to the leaders of the House Appropriations panel.

{mosads}The budgets, he said, would bring base discretionary spending levels for defense and non-defense down to their lowest levels in a decade.

He also blasted Republicans for sticking to sequestration budget ceilings set by a 2011 law, arguing they will jeopardize national security.

Donovan’s letter signals the approaching fight over government spending between the GOP-controlled Congress and the White House. The divide could potentially lead to another government shutdown this fall if both sides can’t agree on individual spending bills or a spending package by Sept. 30.

The first spending bill, which funds energy and water development programs, totals $35 billion, 2 percent below President Obama’s budget request, Donovan said. It would provide $1.2 billion more than the level allocated for the current fiscal year.

Donovan criticized Republicans for proposing sharp cuts to a slew of energy and research programs as well as grid modernization efforts. He also knocked Republicans for riders in the bill that he said would undermine the government’s ability to protect clean water.

Donovan told the Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and ranking member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) that “inadequate” funding levels in the two spending bills under consideration would require larger cuts in other spending bills.

“The Republican budget framework would require cuts of roughly 8 percent compared to the president’s budget for the rest of the non-defense discretionary accounts,” Donovan said.

Appropriators are also considering a nearly $77 billion spending bill for fiscal 2016 that funds military construction projects and veterans’ benefits.

The bill, Donovan said, would underfund Obama’s medical care request for veterans by more than half a billion dollars and thereby “negatively impact” their medical care services.

It also underfunds military construction projects and uses “gimmicks” to fund them by allocating money through the Pentagon’s war fund, Donovan said.

Donovan said “the administration strongly opposes” the bill’s restriction on funds to renovate or expand a U.S.-based facility that could house people held at Guantánamo Bay.

The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up both measures on Wednesday and both are expected to hit the House floor next week.

In order to hold floor votes on them, however, Republicans must adopt a joint budget agreement by May 15. Negotiators are still working out the differences between the two blueprints adopted in each chamber in March.