Federal Grant Programs for States Are on the Chopping Block

NPP Pressroom

Facebook Twitter

Government Executive
Timothy B. Clark
01/12/2015

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, joined by other House Republican leaders, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill earlier this month. J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo

WASHINGTON — With Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, one might expect a serious assault on federal spending and deficits, most likely focusing on domestic discretionary programs that prop up the budgets of state and local governments.

If it comes, the attack will be directed at budgets starting in federal fiscal year 2016, which begins next Oct. 1. Most of the budget for fiscal 2015 was settled in the so-called cromnibus legislation enacted in December.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate have pledged a return to “regular order” in budget deliberations, which would be a welcome departure from recent years’ reliance on belated omnibus funding bills, huge and incomprehensible as they are. Regular order would entail ... [more]