Between the budget lines
Details and ramifications of the House budget cuts have emerged in the last week. If the House-passed reductions are enacted, this is what can be expected, according to lawmakers and advocacy groups:
Education
Head Start ($1.1 billion): Could cut enrollment for 200,000 preschoolers and could cut as many as 55,000 teachers.
Pell Grants ($5.6 billion): Reduces aid per student up to 15%, affects up to 9 million college students.
Health
Health overhaul: Prohibits funding for President Obama’s healthcare reform, could hold up enforcement of provisions such as those requiring coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
Family planning ($317 million) Eliminates funding for clinics, including Planned Parenthood, that provide cancer screenings, contraception and reproductive services for 5 million Americans, mostly women.
Law enforcement
State and local law enforcement ($581 million): Could lead to cuts across the board, possibly reducing a grant system used to fund multi-agency task forces, canine patrols and court programs.
Federal courts ($476 million): Cuts could furlough 2,400 probation officers and court employees, halting payments to defense attorneys, potentially stalling criminal prosecutions.
Border gun smuggling: Prohibits the use of federal funds for an Obama administration plan to require gun sellers along the southwestern border to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles to the same person. Currently, reporting is limited to multiple handgun sales.
Water/Infrastructure
Sewer and drinking water ($2 billion): Could cut loans for 750 local water and sewer projects, eliminating potential jobs estimated at up to 54,000 in construction, engineering and related fields.
Transportation ($3 billion): Eliminates funds for 51 rail projects and 76 road and highway projects in dozens of states, and the potential construction-related jobs estimated at up to 100,000.
Innovation
National Institutes for Health ($1.6 billion): Cuts funds that could affect research into cancer and other diseases.
Patent office ($200 million): Transfers fees collected by the Patent and Trademark Office to the general treasury, exacerbating a backlog of 700,000 patents.
Consumer protection/Workplace safety
Workplace safety ($99 million): Cuts could furlough Occupational Health and Safety Administration employees, resulting in 8,000 fewer workplace inspections
Food ($241 million): Could furlough hundreds of Food and Drug Administration inspectors. An additional $88 million could be cut from U.S. Department of Agriculture, resulting in possible layoffs of meat and poultry inspectors.
Environment
Air pollution: Prohibits the use of funds to regulate carbon and other greenhouse gases as well as certain sources of mercury emissions, which are harmful to pregnant women and children
Climate change: Prohibits the use of funds for the Nobel-prize winning International Panel on Climate Change, which is globally funded. The bill would cut more than $100 million from U.S. climate change research efforts
Culture
Corporation for Public Broadcasting ($430 million): Eliminates mainly grant funds to provide content and operate 1,300 public radio and television stations, cutting jobs nationwide. Experts say it will most directly affect rural, small stations.
Arts ($20 million): Eliminates funds for grants and administration at the National Endowment for the Arts
Foreign aid
International aid: Could cut millions of dollars in development aid and disaster, refugee and food crisis response.
Wildlife: Could cut funds for international efforts to protect elephants, tigers and other hunted and threatened species
For more:
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee: https://appropriations.house.gov/_files/ProgramCutsFY2011ContinuingResolution.pdf
House Democrats:
https://www.democraticleader.gov/news/reports?id=0515
Center for American Progress:
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/02/budget_cuts_innovation.html
Sources: H.R. 1 legislative material; congressional Democratic and Republican assessments; advocacy groups
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