Gregg WIll Chair Budget Committee
WASHINGTON 11/10/04- Senator Judd Gregg announced Wednesday afternoon that he will be the chairman of the influential Senate Budget Committee next session, a position that gives him jurisdiction over drafting and monitoring Congress’ annual budget plan.
Gregg gives up the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and replaces Budget chairman Don Nickles (R-Okla.), who did not seek reelection. Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) will replace Gregg as chairman of the Health Committee. Gregg, who will remain a member of the health panel, is also on the Appropriations Committee.
“It’s one of the pressure points, one of the significant pressure points, in the Congress where you can really get a handle on spending and where you can have an impact,” Gregg said of the Budget Committee chairmanship.
Gregg said President George Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) asked him to take the position and that the primary reason he chose to change committee leadership roles was his concern for reining in the deficit and reforming entitlement programs.
Gregg said he wanted to put a budget in place that would cut the deficit in half within four years and establish mechanisms that would discipline Congress on fiscal policy, such as pay-as-you-go rules and caps.
“As we look into the future and ask what are the biggest public policy issues beyond fighting terrorism, [they are] getting the deficit under control and addressing the demographic tidal wave that is heading for us,” Gregg said.
Gregg stressed that he would seek a bipartisan approach to drawing up a budget, saying he would go in “with a blank piece of paper.”
Dante Scala, a political science professor at St. Anselm College, said he thought Gregg was suited for the position.
“He certainly brings to the table a reputation for fiscal constraint,” Scala said. “He went against the President in his first term occasionally, because he felt like there were certain things that were budget busters.”
Gregg was one of only seven Republican senators who voted against Medicare prescription drug legislation signed into law last December, saying that the long-term financial burdens outweighed the immediate benefits.
But in spite of their rare occasional differences, John Fortier, an expert on Congress at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said, Gregg’s close relationship with Bush would work to both their advantages.
“The Budget Committee is the beginning of the process ,and to the extent that [Gregg is] close to the President. there is an advantage with having coordination in advance,” Fortier said.
The President is supposed to submit his budget for the next fiscal year to Congress by the first Monday in February, and the Budget Committees in the House and Senate are responsible for drafting an annual budget plan.
Gregg said he would apply New Hampshire principles in this task.
“You live within your means,” he said, “and you do it without raising taxes.”
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