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State of the Union

Community grants could be cut

By wire services
Published February 3, 2005

President Bush's budget will propose cuts of up to 40 percent in a $4.7-billion program that disperses development grants to communities across the United States, congressional aides said Wednesday.

The proposed cuts in community development block grants - and their possible consolidation with other economic development programs - were to be announced today.

The program provides money to more than 1,000 communities each year and is a favorite with state and local officials, who are expected to battle any attempt to pare it back. It also is a treasured source of home-district largesse for members of Congress, who each year win hundreds of millions of dollars worth of so-called "earmarks" to funnel grants to communities in their districts.

The development grants have been a perennial - but usually unsuccessful - target for potential budget savings for Republican administrations back to President Ronald Reagan. They were created in 1974.

Last year, Bush's budget applauded the flexibility the program gives local officials for using the money. But it also criticized the grants for spreading the money so broadly that it fails to achieve its primary objective - revitalizing distressed neighborhoods.

Bush's proposal will be one of many in his 2006 budget aimed at holding overall domestic spending to virtually no growth next year. The reductions are part of his effort to battle mushrooming federal deficits, projected to set a third consecutive record of $427-billion.

White House budget office spokesman Chad Kolton would not comment on what Bush will seek for the community development program.

Commerce Secretary Don Evans and four senior lawmakers did not attend President Bush's State of the Union speech as precautions against a potential devastating attack on the Capitol.

By longstanding tradition, a member of the president's Cabinet is kept away from the speech in case the entire administration is wiped out. Evans did not attend last year's State of the Union address either.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, congressional leaders have usually asked a leading lawmaker to stay away as well, despite intense security.

Those asked to stay away this year were Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.; Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.; and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon - the last three presidents to win second terms - all faced Congresses controlled at least in part by the opposition party.

Lyndon Johnson in 1965 was the last president to enjoy a position of power comparable to Bush's now. LBJ's landslide 1964 win and his even larger Democratic majorities in Congress arguably gave him even more power, which he used to push through his Great Society domestic program and to escalate the war in Vietnam.

[Last modified February 3, 2005, 01:08:13]