White House threatens to veto GOP transportation, housing bill

The White House threatened on Monday to veto a $44 billion budget for the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development that is being considered by Republicans in the House.

The GOP budget calls for the departments to spend $7.7 billion less than their 2013 spending levels in the 2014 fiscal year.

White House officials said on Monday that the cuts were too steep for President Obama to stomach.

{mosads}”The administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 2610, making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes,” the White House said in a statement.

“The bill severely undermines critical investments in economic and community development programs that drive local innovation, while also significantly reducing resources for public improvements, air traffic control infrastructure, affordable housing, as well as public services for low- to moderate-income families,” the White House statement continued. “If the President were presented with H.R. 2610, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”

Republicans in the House who drafted the T-HUD bill said they had to make painful choices given the dictates of the sequester.

“This bill is an example of the current budgetary trade-offs facing our nation – the need to make deep cuts to meet our fiscal constraints and address the deficit, while maintaining funding for important government programs and services,” House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said in a statement when the measure was introduced last month.

The White House strongly disagreed on Monday, saying the GOP’s proposed cuts to the transportation and housing departments “would hurt our economy and require draconian cuts to middle-class priorities. 

“These cuts could result in hundreds of thousands of low-income children losing access to Head Start programs, tens of thousands of children with disabilities losing Federal funding for their special education teachers and aides, thousands of Federal agents who can’t enforce drug laws, combat violent crime or apprehend fugitives, and thousands of scientists without medical grants, which would slow research that could lead to new treatments and cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s, and hurt America’s economic competitiveness,” the White House said.