ALL GOV -- Obama Budget Losers: Justice Dept., Small Business Administration, Corps of Engineers March 06, 2014 President Barack Obama has proposed spending nearly $4 trillion during fiscal year 2015, and while that is indeed a tremendous amount of money, the bounty of federal tax dollars will still leave some agencies griping over the possibility of substantial budget cuts. Among all cabinet-level departments, Justice will take the biggest hit. Its 2015 budget request is nearly 40% lower than what the department received in the current fiscal year. Justice officials did their best to put a positive spin on the White House plan, emphasizing that more money would go into criminal justice reform next year. However, that total—$173 million—represents only a small fraction of the department’s total budget proposal of $27.4 billion. The biggest winners in the proposed Justice budget would be the FBI, tagged for $9 billion, and the Bureau of Prisons, for which is earmarked $8.4 billion. Salaries for a staff of lawyers to manage the department’s caseload are also reported to be quite steep. The Justice Department will not be the only agency staring at a double-digit budget chop next year if the budget passes. The Small Business Administration would suffer a 22% loss in funding, while the Army Corps of Engineers’ cut would be 18% if Obama’s budget succeeds. Over at the Pentagon, the defense budget will remain the same from 2014 to 2015. Conservatives have made a lot of noise since Obama unveiled his plan (pdf), claiming the president was out to gut funding for the U.S. military. Apparently, not giving the Defense Department a raise in tough fiscal times is just as bad as actually reducing its budget, which isn’t happening.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 14:22:17 +0000
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