Senate Dems Eying Cuts In Domestic Violence Crime Programs
In an effort to get Republicans to sign on to the Senate stimulus package, Dem Senate staffers are eying a new round of cuts that would slash millions of dollars of funding to sensitive programs protecting women from violence, protecting children against Internet crimes, and disability research.
The cuts are likely to agitate various constituent groups. They are outlined in an internal memo from the office of Senator Ben Nelson, the Democrat who is leading efforts to downsize the stim package along with GOP Senator Susan Collins.
The memo was leaked to me by a Congressional staffer, and Talking Points Memo received a copy, too.
A spokesperson for Nelson acknowledged to me that the cuts were indeed being considered, but argued that they were necessary to win GOP support. “Senator Nelson feels like this has to be passed, and they’re working to make sure this is a bill that’s truly stimulative,” said the spokesperson, Clay Westrope. “He needs as much support as he can get for the vote.” Westrope cautioned that the cuts were subject to change.
Among the cuts being eyed:
* $100,000,000 from a program subsidizing agriculture producers for high feed input losses
* $150,000,000 from the Violence Against Women Act
* $25,000,000 from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task forces
* $610,000,000 from Disability Research
* $1,050,000,000 from Head Start
A Senate staffer acknowledged that the cuts would likely irk various groups. “There are specific groups that of course want some of this money to be seen in the bill,” the staffer said. “It’s not that we don’t support this funding, it’s just that we don’t feel it should be in the stimulus package. Constituency groups that focus on one issue aren’t going to be pleased.”
More on this in a bit.
Update: The Huffington Post reports that a different Nelson spokesperson says they’re backing off these cuts, which seems at odds with what the other spokesperson said above.
Update II: Weirder and weirder. The spokesperson who I spoke with just got back to me again and confirmed that these cuts are being discussed right now. Apparently the person who spoke to HuffPo was merely saying that they’ve been being discussed for a few days and aren’t definite. So these cuts are still very possible.
Update III: As a commenter notes below, I was wrong to include Pell Grants. I’ve edited the above to fix that.
Update IV: A spokesperson makes it unequivocal: Nelson is not backing off the cuts.
Greg – do you know the total being taken out? The list above is only about 16B. I don’t so much mind these taken out of this bill, but I’ll be watching Nelson, Collins and “GOP support” to see whether they really support this stuff elsewhere.
Why the hell are they taking out pell grants? God, the Dems are such pussies.
I think the total is in the neighborhood of 70 billion…
Great job Democrats- low income, women, and the disabled get cuts. Way to go!
God darn ridiculous, refusing to help some of the groups that need it most. Sickening!
Let them filibuster and expose the Repugs for the partisan frauds they are.
So, who’s getting the ax? Women, disabled, children, babies, and college students.
Now that’s change we shouldn’t believe in!
I think the pell grants are in the section “Items that were up for discussion that were maintained.” 0% cut.
What about COBRA benefits, Greg? There is a diary on Kos that seems to indicate they are being cut, which would also be boneheaded.
Why is everything being cut directly beneficial to low income people. Aren’t they the ones that need it most.
What is happening right now is exactly what I was afraid of when Obama went down this bipartisan road on an economic bill. Republicans and economics. Anyone see a problem here?
HuffPo article on COBRA, etc that the Kos diary is based off of:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/04/health-benefits-for-unemp_n_164034.html
Every one of these programs will help to stimulate our economy.
Nelson’s running scared from Republican talking points.
Nelson, he’s the new Lieberman.
Republicans and economics. Anyone see a problem here? – josephcast
If only Blue Dogs did.
Donny — you’re right about Pell. Apologies. I’ve fixed the error. thanks.
Anyone notice that half the cuts($40B) are the 100% elimination of State stabilization funds? Can we let all the folks in the states that s/b recipients that the GOP is telling them to go to hell?
And about $14B is the 100% elimination of added PELL Grant money, when community colleges and public universities are being swammped by people who suddenly are unemployable, have no income stream, and are serious enough to go back to school for new training and education?
How shortsighted are these clowns? Oh, wait…they’re Republicans!!! I forgot. They don’t care about US (that’s U.S.) They only care about their corporate donors.
Nice that Nelson wants to cut funding from the VAWA. I’m sure Joe Biden thinks that’s a swell idea.
I heard some of the most infuriating words that can appear in a news story this morning “the stimulus bill appears not to have the sixty votes it needs to pass…”
Why is no one on the Democratic side saying the word “filibuster”? Do they not remember “upperdown vote”?
The economy is in free fall, there appear to be fifty votes, and our country is being imperiled because Republicans are filibustering legislation to deal with the mess they created.
Redshift, are Dems phrasing it that way?
by the way, Nelson is not backing off the cuts.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/nelson-spokesperson-he-is-by-no-means-backing-off-the-cuts/
g
Did you see the percentage cuts to science?
According to TPM:
NASA exploration $750,000,000 = 50%
NSF $1,402,000,000 = 100%
NOAA $427,000,000 = 34.94%
NIST $218,000,000 = 37.91%
DOE energy efficiency & renewable energy $1,000,000,000 = 38%
DOE office of science $100,000,000 = 100%
For those who are unfamiliar with the National Science Foundation:
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…” With an annual budget of about $6.06 billion, we are the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.
Please post up more pictures of Jessica Simpson!
Thanks for this. It really helped me out!
Interesting reading. Was not sure the government had some money left to dole out.
Your posts always show me that you really have some indepth knowledge about this. Quite a valuable read i must say.
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