Democrats Ask Bush Again for Budget Details

Democratic congressional leaders renewed their demands Tuesday for more details on President Bush’s proposals for major domestic programs and said that they cannot start preparing a new federal budget without them.

Richard G. Darman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, who came to Capitol Hill for the second day in a row to reassure the distressed lawmakers, said that the missing figures would be provided, perhaps by the end of this week.

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu joined the budget talks Tuesday, asserting that the President wants the negotiations on spending levels for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 to succeed and pledging his cooperation.

Obligated to Give Figures

Two powerful Senate chairmen, however, made public a letter that they sent to Bush reminding him that he has an obligation to provide detailed figures and warning him that they would use former President Ronald Reagan’s budget requests as his own unless Bush’s proposed changes are received “in the near future.”

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), head of the Budget Committee, joined in the pointed request to underscore their unhappiness over Bush’s decision to avoid setting specific spending levels for $136-billion worth of federal programs other than defense, Social Security and interest on the public debt.

Speaking for the House Budget Committee, Chairman Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey) said that there appears to be “confusion” in the Bush Administration over whether the President favors keeping these programs at current spending levels or whether he wants to go along with Reagan’s proposals.

“We can’t negotiate when most of the lines are blank,” the California lawmaker complained. “The big question mark is non-defense discretionary,” he said, referring to federal spending that is not automatically required by law.

Darman said that his staff would submit the necessary numbers by Thursday in consultation with staff aides from the Senate and House budget panels. The first congressional budget hearings begin next week.

“There are still some ambiguities that need to be cleared up and I hope they will be,” Sasser said. “There is more fluidity than I would prefer on the $136 billion. . . . Perhaps that can be cleared up.”

Before the Appropriations committees in both chambers can begin their work, Sasser said, they need a detailed breakdown of how much the President wants to spend for dozens of programs for which he failed to provide specific figures.

Historically, Darman declared, the Bush Administration is further along in the budget process than its predecessors in recent years. “We’re providing data on everything,” he declared. “Really, it’s an extraordinary effort.”

Democrats in Congress, however, have expressed the view that Bush’s decision to lump most domestic programs in a so-called “black box” and freeze their overall outlays at the current total of $136 billion was designed to make them share the blame for making unpopular cuts in the existing level of services.