Story Published:
Apr 9, 2001 at 1:26 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Aug 30, 2006 at 11:30 PM PDT
WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Bush targeted scores of federal
programs on Monday to make room for his $1.6 trillion tax cut,
proposing to slash funds for emergency preparedness, urban police patrols, energy
conservation and pediatrician training.
"Washington is known for its pork. This budget funds our needs
without the fat," Bush told reporters as his administration sent
Congress a 2,500-page document filling in the fine print of the
$1.96 trillion rudimentary budget he outlined in February.
Democrats balked, saying Bush's proposals would cut bone as well
as fat, and noted that the Senate already had repudiated part of
Bush's tax plan by trimming it back to $1.2 trillion.
Bush urged reductions in 10 of the government's 25 major
agencies. The deepest are at the departments of Agriculture and
Transportation.
From Streets To Schools
Many programs put in place by former President Clinton were
targeted, including a 17 percent cut in his program to put 100,000
new police officers on city streets. Part of the savings would be
redirected to beefing up security at the nation's schools.
The budget calls for a $35 million cut in a program to help
train pediatricians and other health professionals at children's
hospitals.
Bush's budget also would trim environmental and
energy-conservation programs, limit Space Station research, and
slash programs to help Russian nuclear scientists find civilian
work and to boost economic development in poor neighborhoods.
Project Impact
The budget also would eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Project Impact, a $25 million effort to help communities get ready for natural disasters.
The first announcement that the program was being
cut came just after the 6.8-magnitude Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., believes the funding saved lives and prevented what could have been greater destruction. She introduced a measure Thursday to protect the program, which the Senate passed Friday.
Bush's earlier "budget blueprint" said Project Impact "has not proven effective."
Seattle's Project Impact program was launched in January 1998 during a seven-city pilot program. The program is a public-private partnership designed to promote safer homes, schools and businesses before
natural disasters occur.
Nationally, Project Impact now includes 250 cities. The measure passed Friday by the Senate now goes to a House and Senate conference committee.
For More Information
White House -- www.whitehouse.gov
Seattle's Project Impact -- www.ci.seattle.wa.us/projectimpact
FEMA's Project Impact -- www.fema.gov/impact
