WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- No one will be exempt from budget-cutting scrutiny, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Thursday.
"Our budget ax will swing wide and true and no budget area will be immune," Rogers said during debate on a bill that would cut the House operating budget by 5 percent. "Sacred cows, for all intents and purposes, are extinct."
He noted his committee would reduce its operating budget by 9 percent, saying, "The Appropriations Committee is saying, 'We see your 5 and raise you 4.'"
He said the Appropriations Committee would be "ground zero" for a wide range of reductions across federal government.
"We will be an instrument of change to enforce the will of the American people," Rogers said.
He said Thursday's House action "represents a crucial turning point for our nation as this new Congress begins a path to fiscal sanity."
