The prolonged recession, foreign debt, unemployment and the current federal budget deficit have all had a disproportionate impact upon decision-making in Congress with regard to overall federal spending and specifically to non-defense discretionary spending. Non-defense discretionary spending and housing and community develop ment spending, as a subset of this portion of the overall federal budget, proportionately represent the smallest part of current overall spending government-wide. Yet, these same dollars are most often the target of Congressional efforts to rein in Federal spending.
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