Huge Law Enforcement Cuts Seen

The nation’s budget-balancing law will require cuts of 25% to 50% in most domestic federal programs, with even larger cuts possible in certain law enforcement areas, according to a private analysis released Monday.

The study by Management Information Services Inc. and the Center for Defense Information, both based in Washington, said that the impact of the automatic cuts under the Gramm-Rudman law would be far more severe than previously believed.

The report, billed as the first full-scale study of the long-range impacts of the law, said that deep cuts will occur even if Congress raises taxes and slashes defense spending. “There is little to avoid this if the act remains unchanged,” it said.

If the law’s constitutionality is upheld by the Supreme Court, and Congress does not subsequently modify it, some law enforcement areas, including the FBI, could suffer cuts ranging to 63% by 1990, the study said.

The reason for this, it said, is that Congress, while shielding some sensitive programs like Social Security from the Gramm-Rudman cuts, neglected to make provisions under the law for fully funding some critical law enforcement programs. Those include the U.S. prison system, protecting the President and patrolling U.S. borders.