WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives on Thursday was on track to approve slashing 61 billion dollars in government spending in a measure that makes deep cuts to global US aid in the name of austerity.
Lawmakers in the Republican-led chamber have been at
Work since Tuesday on a spending bill to fund government operations
For the 2011 fiscal year that ends September 30, laboriously
Dealing with nearly 600 amendments to the
Measure.
Final House passage was expected as early as Friday,
setting the stage for a pitched battle with the Senate, which was
all but certain to roll back many of the reductions and
force hard-fought negotiations on a compromise.
A current stopgap spending measure expires March 4,
and increasingly nasty verbal sparring and finger-pointing in
the US Congress could lead to a failure to adopt a replacement,
triggering a government shutdown.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton have both strongly warned lawmakers that
overly deep cuts risk eroding US influence overseas and
triggering crises hurting national security.
"We need the resources to do the job, otherwise we will pay
a higher price later in crises that are allowed to simmer and boil
over into conflicts," Clinton said Monday.
"Drastic reductions in the size and strength of the US
military make armed conflict all the more likely
with an unacceptably high cost in American blood and treasure,"
Gates told lawmakers Wednesday.
Republicans have vowed to largely spare the Pentagon, and keep
aid to Israel and Egypt intact, but said Washington needs to
tighten its belt to deflate its yearly budget deficit and
reducing its swollen national debt.
"To reduce uncertainty and create a better environment
for job creation, we need to cut wasteful spending and we need
to stop Washington's spending binge,"
said Republican House Speaker John Boehner.
The House and Senate were to be in recess next week, giving them little time to agree on a compromise to avert
a government shutdown
which would freeze government retirement
checks and other basic services from Washington.
Democrats have denounced an array of foreign aid cuts
in the Republican-crafted bill, warning that paring back the
US State Department's funds could notably hurt its efforts in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Democrats have also highlighted how the bill would slash
the budget of the US Agency of International Development,
overseas economic development monies, global disaster and refugee
aid, and funds to battle HIV/AIDS.
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