Defense budget cuts to pay for teacher bailout - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Defense budget cuts to pay for teacher bailout

A $10 billion teacher bailout bill that is on a fast track to congressional approval is paid for, in part, with a $3.3 billion cut in defense programs.

The defense cuts may not cause much harm because it is money previously approved but unspent that is simply being rescinded, including $683.5 million unspent from last year’s economic stimulus package and $325 million that was supposed to pay for construction projects.

However, diverting money from the defense budget to education programs would eliminate any opportunity for the Defense Department or Congress to take unobligated money from one defense program to spend on another defense program.

That could be a significant loss as pressure increases to hold down the Pentagon budget. For example, the House defense appropriations subcommittee approved a $7 billion cut in the 2010 defense budget on July 27 that depended on unspent account balances for a large part of the reduction, according to Rep. Norm Dicks, the subcommittee chairman.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, which won’t get around to preparing its version of the 2011 defense budget until September, has an even higher goal of reducing defense spending by $8 billion.

The teacher bailout bill, HR 1586, was approved by the Senate on Thursday by a 61-39 vote. The House of Representatives plans to return from vacation to pass the bill on Tuesday.

The $3.3 billion in diverted defense spending will help fund aid to state governments that is expected to prevent 100,000 teacher layoffs, which is a top priority of President Obama. Paying for the bailout through cuts in other federal programs is needed to get enough votes for the measure to pass.

DISCUSS: DEFENSE BUDGET CUTS