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Armstrong questions validity of subcommittee
recommendations
GOP committee leader wonders if nonbinding budget
report will be used
House Republicans are
questioning whether time was well spent working seven weeks in an
appropriations subcommittee that has created a nonbinding budget report
that could easily be disregarded by the House Appropriations Committee.
The Appropriations
Subcommittee on General Government and Audit Review voted 13-1 Thursday to
approve 2007-09 operating budget recommendations of $1.49 billion, which
is nearly 5 percent of the entire general fund budget proposed. It's the first of its kind subcommittee, created by
majority Democrats in the House.
The subcommittee's ranking
Republican,
Rep. Mike
Armstrong, questioned the
overall relevancy of the document and whether the subcommittee members'
votes would count when the recommendations go to the full House
Appropriations Committee.
"It's not a bill. And
maybe you could call it a 'bill-like bill.' But it has no bill number.
Since it's not a bill, there were no opportunities to provide any
amendments. I'm not even sure what this 116-page document really is,"
said Armstrong, R-Wenatchee. "My biggest concern is the lack of process
and not really knowing the true authority of this subcommittee, or
whether it even has any authority."
Armstrong said he doesn't
have an overriding concern with the policy included in the
recommendations -- it's the process.
"I wanted to make the
funding of state parks whole. So the committee included $4.2 million for
state parks. We reviewed funding for 67 state agencies and commissions.
So the policy is not the problem. It's a question of the relevancy of
the process," said Armstrong. "When this subcommittee was formed, we
made it clear to the majority party that we should be hearing
legislation that supports different aspects of these appropriations. In
the seven weeks we met, we didn't hear any bills. We didn't vote on any
bills that support this recommendation. And we didn't even know if we
would ever take a vote. It's been very unclear. And now we don't even
know what full Appropriations Committee is going to do with this
recommendation."
Armstrong noted that the
subcommittee chair admitted during a news conference Wednesday that the
final recommendations may not be used when she told reporters, "I don't
believe that the exact numbers that are in this budget may be what shows
up in the final budget. That's up to, obviously, the Appropriation
leadership and other leadership to decide."
Armstrong said he
appreciated the commitment of Republican members who diligently worked
through
the subcommittee meetings, even as they questioned the validity of the
process.
"We were meeting three and
four times a week and have put in a ton of work on this subcommittee.
Yet we're still not clear when this goes to Appropriations if the chair
will say, 'Fine, thank you very much for your work,' and then set it on
the shelf. After all the resources and work we've done, if this report
gets ignored, all that work will be for nothing," noted Armstrong. "My
hope is that she will pay some attention to it and will at least keep it
in mind when she starts writing the overall budget for the state. I'd
hate to think that all of our work in this subcommittee has been a waste
of time."
Armstrong said he was
disappointed the chair of the Appropriations Committee has already said
there will be changes to the proposal.
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