White House unveils budget request with deep cuts: 5 things to know

Yahoo

02-05-2025

The White House on Friday called for significant cuts to nondefense programs as part of President Trump's fiscal 2026 budget request, while proposing to beef up funding for defense and the president's border priorities.
The so-called skinny budget is not as detailed as usual presidential budget requests, which is not uncommon for a president's first-year proposal. However, some budget hawks are already grumbling about what they say are key missing details.
Republicans have said they expect more information about the president's preferred spending direction in the coming weeks. The request is a wish list from the president, rather than a bill that would be enacted. But the latest request from the White House provides a critical look into the president's funding priorities for the coming fiscal year as Republicans look to significantly reduce federal spending.
Here's five things to know about the budget request.
Trump proposed eliminating or zeroing out funding for dozens of federal programs the administration says are either duplicative, underperforming or are out of line with the administration's priorities.
The wide-ranging list of programs includes the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education program, Job Corps, the Community Development Block Grant program, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the 400 Years of African American History Commission, and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which the administration said 'is similar to the mandatory Personal Responsibility Education program.'
The U.S. Agency for Global Media, the U.S. Institute for Peace and the National Endowment for Democracy would also see the chopping block, as development agencies find themselves in the administration's crosshairs.
The budget proposes a nearly $27 billion reduction for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with state rental assistance block grants on the chopping block. It instead calls for the transformation of the rental assistance programs into a 'state-based formula grant which would allow states to design their own rental assistance programs based on their unique needs and preferences.'
'The Budget would also newly institute a two-year cap on rental assistance for able bodied adults, and would ensure a majority of rental assistance funding through States would go to the elderly and disabled,' the request said. 'A State-based formula program would also lead to significant terminations of Federal regulations.'
The budget request unveiled Friday included a cut to nondefense discretionary spending amounting to $163 billion, or about 23 percent. Defense funding, meanwhile, would rise by about 13 percent, the White House said.
That builds on the funding bill the government is currently operating under, which kept funding for 2025 roughly level with 2024, while increasing defense spending by $6 billion and cutting nondefense spending by $13 billion.
A breakdown in the Friday request outlines the proposed cuts by agency, with the administration calling for cuts of about 18 percent for the Department of Agriculture, 17 percent for the Commerce Department, 15 percent for the Education Department, 9 percent for the Energy Department, 44 percent for the HUD, 31 percent for the Interior Department, 8 percent for the Justice Department, 35 percent for the Department of Labor, 84 percent for the Department of State and international programs, and 19 percent for the Treasury Department.
At the same time, increases are proposed for several agencies, including a roughly 13 percent boost for the Department of Defense, a nearly 65 percent boost for the Department of Homeland Security, a roughly 6 percent jump for the Transportation Department, and an increase of about 4 percent for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Administration officials touted the request at putting defense spending above $1 trillion, but the budget assumes some of the increases for defense and the administration's border plans would be provided through Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill that Republicans are working to assemble in Congress and that is crafted separately from the appropriations process.
Republicans are using a process known as budget reconciliation to advance the president's tax agenda, while also making further cuts to spending and boosting funding for defense and the president's deportation plans. While the process can be time-consuming and restrictive, it would ultimately allow Republicans to jam through such a package without having to worry about likely Democratic opposition in the Senate.
But some Republicans have come out against the gambit of counting funds from the reconciliation bill toward fiscal 2026 defense spending.
'President Trump successfully campaigned on a Peace Through Strength agenda, but his advisers at the Office of Management and Budget [OMB] were apparently not listening,' Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said in a statement Friday. 'For the defense budget, OMB has requested a fifth year straight of Biden administration funding, leaving military spending flat, which is a cut in real terms.'
Wicker added that he has said 'for months that reconciliation defense spending does not replace the need for real growth in the military's base budget.'
While the proposed budget does call for cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), OMB Director Russell Vought said Friday that the reductions do not include changes to Head Start programs, which provide early childhood education to low-income families.
His comments come as the Trump administration is already facing ⁠legal challenges after previous reports that Head Start funding was set to be cut in the HHS's budget amid office closures.
However, the request does also outline notable reductions on the education side, including proposals to eliminate Preschool Development Grants and cuts funding for the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights.
More than $1.5 billion in spending reductions under a line item for TRIO programs and Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) are also proposed for the Education Department.
'TRIO and GEAR UP are a relic of the past when financial incentives were needed to motivate Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to engage with low-income students and increase access,' the request stated. 'The lack of action by IHEs also meant that States and local school districts needed additional support to prepare low-income students for college.'
While proposing a cut of more than $2.4 billion to the IRS in a move it said would end 'weaponization of IRS enforcement,' the budget request also states that the 'elimination of certain complex tax credits and technology improvements would increase IRS efficiency.'
Pressed about the proposal on Friday, White House officials said all of the administration's proposals would be included in the more detailed budget plan expected later in the year.
Congressional Republicans are negotiating trillions of dollars in tax cuts as part of their reconciliation plan, which seeks to permanently lock in expiring provisions enacted as part of Trump's signature 2017 tax law, and could include further tax cuts the president has proposed in recent months.
While Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said the group was encouraged to see the administration put forward a plan that reduces spending, she added in a statement that the request 'focuses on only a quarter of the budget over a single year.'
'It remains to be seen what the rest of the President's proposals will hold, and there is still the multi-trillion-dollar question of whether the reconciliation bill will blow up the debt,' she said, while calling on the president to quickly release a 'full budget.'
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