House Republicans on Wednesday proposed ending more than 60 government programs and cutting hundreds of others in a $35 billion down payment on their promise to rein in federal deficits.
The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday announced deep federal spending cuts — including the elimination of some established programs — in a preliminary budget plan, while top Republican House leaders met with President Obama to discuss ways to rein in spending and shrink the national debt.
A key House committee Tuesday approved the broad outlines of a GOP plan to sharply curb domestic programs and foreign aid, but it wasn't enough for a handful of Republicans on the panel who promised to try to cut the measure even further during floor debate next week.
The Republicans who control of the purse strings in the House announced plans Thursday to cut basic domestic spending by at least $43 billion this year through reductions to most federal departments — though they still fell short of the GOP's pledge just months ago to return to pre-stimulus levels.
The new 112th Congress, politically reshaped and redirected by the voters, reopened for business this week to tackle some old and vexing issues. Republican Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, who rose from poverty to become the speaker of the House, is setting about to deliver on his party's campaign pledge to curb out-of-control spending, accelerate job creation, boost economic growth and repeal Obamacare.
House Republicans on Tuesday picked Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky as chairman of the chamber's powerful Appropriations Committee — a move that would put the panel with direct control over vast amounts of federal spending in the hands of a longtime supporter of earmarks.
Hundreds of coal miners rallied on Capitol Hill Wednesday against the Obama administration's attempts to rein in mountaintop-removal mining, accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of trying to wipe out the coal industry.
