House spending panel slaps DHS for missed deadlines

[The Straight Story]

House spending panel slaps DHS for missed deadlines

By Greta Wodele, CongressDaily
House appropriators Wednesday decided to teach the Homeland Security Department a harsh lesson for not playing by their rules, approving $30.8 billion in funding for fiscal 2006, but cutting and withholding more than $700 million from various agencies.

House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., followed through on recent threats to department officials that the appropriators would seek retribution for missed deadlines to provide the committee with information on missions.

"It's a simple equation: No information equals no money," Rogers said. "There are more than $485 million in cuts because we did not get information we needed to make informed decisions about programs and operations." The panel also withheld more than $240 million from various agencies until officials take action.

On the chopping block is the Coast Guard's Deepwater program, the Transportation Security Administration, new Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff's office and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The panel approved the bill by voice vote, preparing the measure for a full committee markup Tuesday.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0505/050505cdam2.htm

[Roland99]

1. Hmm...a Red-State Repub with some teeth?

[leveymg]

2. If that means Chertoff has to sit on a bench in the hallway, I'm all for

it! Also, please reprogram the money for Coast Guard Haitian interdiction to fund UNHCR refugee resettlement programs. As for TSA and FEMA, they should get out of the domestic political profiling and concentration camp businesses, respectively. Here, I'm with the Republicans: downsize the federal government an agency at a time!

Thank you Rep. Rogers for waiving the power of the purse, even if we all know it's just for show and the * WH has eaten your lunch.

:bounce: