The House on Tuesday rejected a proposal to cut most items in a 2016 legislative branch spending bill by 1 percent, the latest attempt by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to pare back spending and reduce the nation’s $18 trillion debt.
The House was considering a legislative branch spending bill for fiscal year 2016, and Blackburn offered an amendment to impose a 1 percent cut. That cut would have spared the Capitol Police, the Architect of the Capitol and the Sergeant At Arms.
Most Republicans voted in favor of the cut, which would have saved millions of dollars in 2016 spending. But dozens of GOP members voted with Democrats to block the proposal.
The Blackburn measure failed 172-250, as 72 Republicans voted against the idea. Only three Democrats voted with the majority of Republicans to pass the bill.
The vote once again showed the reluctance of many Republicans to aggressively cut government spending, or even to entertain the idea of moderate cuts. Blackburn has offered these kinds of amendments to various spending bills over the last several years, including cuts of 3 and 5 percent, but each time, several Republicans have voted with Democrats to stop the idea from moving ahead.
While defending her proposal on the House floor, Blackburn acknowledged that the $3.3 billion legislative spending bill comes in below the budget request put forward by the Obama administration. But she said that’s not enough.
“I think there is more work that we could do, and my 1 percent across-the-board spending reduction will save taxpayers an additional $29 million in budget authority, and $25 million in outlays for fiscal year 2016,” she said.
Democratic arguments against the plan were straightforward.
“The legislative branch is under-funded,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
The final spending bill was passed 357-67.
