AFP’s Spotlight on Appropriations – Fiscal Year 2013

April 01, 2012 JBudget & Spending

In March the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), passed a budget blueprint that calls for $15 billion in cuts to discretionary spending this year. We certainly need more significant spending cuts to get Washington’s spending problem under control.

But consider this: even the Ryan budget’s small cuts will go unrealized unless lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee actually put them into place. The Ryan budget is just a blueprint – appropriators can ignore its suggested cuts all together when they craft the 12 appropriations bills that govern funding for federal agencies. (For more on how the federal budget process works and where appropriations fit in, see AFP Foundation’s Need to Know memo on the topic.)

As appropriators set priorities and actually dole out taxpayer dollars, we strongly urge them to at least stick to the Ryan budget’s, if not cut even more. To aid appropriators in their efforts, AFP sent them short memos outlining suggestions for cost savings in each of the 12 appropriations bills.

There was an important role for AFP’s activists in this process. On AFP’s Facebook page we polled our activists to see what they thought were the best ways to cut spending. The most popular picks in each appropriations area were included in our memo to Capitol Hill. Check out the poll results and finalized memos below!

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Completed Memos:

Agriculture, FDA, and Related Agencies
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
Letter to Congress

Defense
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies
Letter to Congress

Financial Services and General Government
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

Homeland Security
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

Labor, Health and Human Services, Education
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

Legislative Branch
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Poll Results
Letter to Congress

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