Budget Chief Details Cuts of $336.1 Million

A month and a half after President Reagan vowed in his State of the Union address to send Congress within 30 days a list of “pork barrel” items that he wants rescinded from the trillion-dollar federal budget, Budget Director James C. Miller III appeared in the White House press briefing room Thursday with recommendations that would eliminate $336.1 million in spending.

Miller declared in what was nearly a roar: “Watch out, little piggies, because the wolf is at your door.”

Then, he produced the list, which included $300,000 for a semi-tropical research laboratory in Key Largo, Fla.; $6.4 million in construction money for a cancer treatment center at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York; $100,000 for construction of a biotechnology research park in Worcester, Mass.; $4.1 million for flood control projects in Harlan and Barbourville, Ky.

Includes Spending Shifts

Besides the approximately 70 proposed revisions, the President recommended an additional $403.1 million in spending shifts, in which the money would be spent, but not as originally planned by Congress--a move that would not result in actual budget savings.

The spending was enacted into law as part of a catchall bill passed in the closing moments of the congressional session last December to fund the fiscal 1988 operations of the government.

During the State of the Union speech on Jan. 25, Reagan had said: “In 30 days, I will send back to you those items as recisions, which if I had the authority to line them out, I would do so.”

Referring to his promised proposal and the agreement the White House reached with Congress in the autumn to begin trimming the budget, Reagan told Congress during the speech: “Now, review this multibillion-dollar package that will not undercut our bipartisan budget agreement. . . . It will improve our deficit-reduction goals.” A deficit of $146.7 billion is forecast for the 1988 budget.

‘Excessive Examples’

On Thursday, Reagan said in a written statement that the items on the list he sent to Congress represented “only the more excessive examples” in the spending bill.

Miller told reporters that the Administration had decided not to submit formal recisions, in which the President would ask Congress to rewrite the budget and take back money that it had previously appropriated. Rather, he said, Reagan was simply recommending the savings, because to rescind the money would violate the autumn budget agreement.