Emerson named chairwoman of appropriations subcommittee

WASHINGTON -- In her newest and perhaps most influential role yet, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson says she thinks of herself as an auditor. Albeit one with a scalpel.

Emerson, a Cape Girardeau Republican, was named Friday as chairwoman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, a high-profile position that will give her financial jurisdiction over more than 30 federal agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, the executive office of the president, the Internal Revenue Service, the District of Columbia and the Security and Exchange Commission. Emerson was the ranking Republican on the same subcommittee in the last Congress.

"This was the subcommittee I wanted to chair," said Emerson, who won re-election in November. "It was my No. 1 choice."

The influential subcommittee oversees and monitors all of the spending those agencies do and allocates how many federal dollars get sent to those agencies, she said. The U.S. House leadership has dictated that spending has to be cut, and Emerson's goal is to get the budget back to 2008 levels.

The deficit has gone from $248 billion to $1.4 trillion in four years, which she called "an outrage."

That's where the scalpel comes in. She expects to pore over department budgets looking for government excess and said she is determined to trim the fat. But she doesn't plan to do so thoughtlessly.

"I think of myself as an auditor," she said. "But I think you have to go with the scalpel and not just slash arbitrarily. I'm going to look at every line item. My responsibility, first and foremost, is to get the budget where my leadership wants me to, as painlessly as possible."

Not that she thinks it will be pain-free.

"If you cut 10 percent from someone's budget, it's hard to be painless," she said. "When you're dealing with that much money, it's hard. But you have to do what you have to do."

Emerson also plans to look at programs and agencies that have outlived their usefulness. Some of them are 30 or 40 years old and haven't been useful in years, she said.

"There has not been a close examination of some of these departments in years," she said.

She also plans to use the powers of the subcommittee to block moves of the administration, particularly mentioning the new health care law that was pushed through by President Barack Obama. Emerson and Republican leaders feel they can at least partially block implementation of the legislation with budget cuts.

Emerson expects her subcommittee to be able to help. The subcommittee oversees the IRS, which is expected to ask for more personnel to enforce the collection of taxes from people who don't purchase health care, Emerson said. If they don't get funding for those personnel, it will make enforcement more difficult, she said.

"But then we have to ask what the Senate's going to do with it," she said. "It will, at some point, become a negotiation. It's not going to be easy. But it's a challenge that I'm looking forward to. I think what this subcommittee does will be crucial."

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