Regulations and Government
Congressional Observer: July 2002
The Bush Administration has proposed spending $759 billion next year for government agencies and programs other than Social Security, but more than half ha

The Bush Administration has proposed spending $759 billion next year for government agencies and programs other than Social Security, but more than half has been earmarked (not to be confused with pork-barrel earmarking) for the military, homeland security and foreign aid. This leaves some $316 billion for all other discretionary government programs and, according to Senate Budget Committee calculations, this is about 3.3 percent below this year’s level.

Consequently, government agencies will be scrambling for sufficient money to maintain their programs. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, said Congress and the Administration will have to come up with at least $11 billion more for domestic spending bills in an election year. Both the Senate and House appropriators will be working on spending bills for the fiscal year that begins October 1.