U.S. agencies are to come up with ways to slice at least 5 percent from their budgets, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says.
The departments are to look for programs that aren't doing enough to accomplish their directed goals or President Barack Obama's platform, The
Washington Post reported.
The budget-cutting marching orders, which are in addition to the president's previous pledge to freeze some spending at most agencies for three years, is to be laid out in a joint memo Tuesday by Emanuel and Budget Director Peter Orszag, the Post said. Department heads are to come up with proposed cuts by Sept. 13.
"The public wants to know that we're willing to be very aggressive on spending. They're willing to invest, but they also want to know that you're
going to wear the green eye shades," Emanuel said told the Post in an interview Monday. "That's exactly what's happening here."
The Post said an advance copy of a speech Orszag is to deliver Tuesday reveals he will zero in on a multitude of programs meant to address similar
issues, including 110 science and math education programs, 100 youth mentoring efforts and 40-plus employment and job training efforts.
"This redundancy wastes resources and makes it harder to act on each of these worthy goals," the Post said Orszag will say in his speech.