White House threatens vetoes for nearly all House appropriations bills

Congress is off to a strong start passing annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2013. But the White House has taken issue with several of the bills' provisions...

Congress is off to a strong start passing annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2013. But the White House has taken issue with several of the bills’ provisions, threatening a veto should many of the bills come to the President’s desk.

The House Appropriations Committee has approved all but one of the 12 spending bills, and the full House voted through seven.

In statements of administration policy, the Office of Management and Budget laid out the administration’s objections to the majority of the spending bills passed by the House.

In fact, the only House appropriations bills — passed either by the full House or the committee — the administration hasn’t threatened to veto are the bills for the Legislative branch and for State and Foreign Operations.

Overall, OMB argued the House bills fail to adhere to budgetary caps agreed to last summer in a broad framework spelling out some $2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade.

Many of the administration’s other objections deal with a continuation of the civilian pay raise — which a number of the spending bills call for — as well as steep budget cuts for some agencies.

Appropriations bill

Last action

Reasons for veto threat

Agriculture

Passed committee

  • Cuts to grant funding, rental assistance for rural areas
  • Lower than requested funding and lack of user fees for the Food and Drug Administration

Commerce, Justice, Science

Passed by the House

  • Lower-than-requested funding for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • A $9.6 million cut to the Census budget
  • Lack of funding for NSTIC program

Defense

Passed committee

  • Included “unnecessary funding
  • Froze funding for Defense acquisition workforce funding
  • Included no premium increases for TRICARE

Energy and Water

Passed the House

  • $75 million funding reduction (from FY 2012) to energy research agency, ARPA-E
  • $428 million reduction to Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Financial Services

Passed committee

  • No pay raise for civilian employees
  • Budget cuts to IRS and OMB

Homeland Security

Passed the House

  • No pay raise for DHS civilian employees
  • No new funding for DHS headquarters consolidation project
  • No funding for data center consolidation

Military Construction

Passed the House

  • Denies civilian pay raise

Transportation/HUD

Passed the House

  • No additional funding for high-speed rail grants, national infrastructure investment program

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