Norelli: Spare States from Severe Budget Cuts

Rep. Terie Norelli, co-chair of the The National Conference of State Legislatures’ Task Force on Federal Deficit Reduction, led a bipartisan delegation to Capitol Hill yesterday. The state legislators lobbied the congressional Super Committee, which is seeking to craft a bipartisan debt reduction plan, and urged them to spare states from severe budget cuts.

“We know that there will be cuts,” New Hampshire Representative Terie Norelli, a Democrat, told reporters during a briefing at the offices of the National Conference of State Legislatures, which organized the lobbying trip. “What we are asking is that cuts to state budgets be proportional to everything else that’s on the table.”

Some have suggested that the best outcome for the states would be for the committee to fail, thereby triggering $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts. Those automatic cuts specifically exempt Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, welfare and food stamp programs.

Norelli emphatically rejected that assertion on Wednesday. She said deep cuts to K-12 education, military installations and other priorities would still happen if the committee is unable to reach a deal, and that the states want the committee to take a comprehensive approach.

“Not succeeding is unacceptable,” she said.