Latest news with #budgetcuts
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- Business
- The Independent
Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves in stand-off over Labour's spending plans
Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves are at loggerheads over the crucial spending review as the deputy prime minister's department passed an unofficial deadline to settle its budget until the next general election without securing an agreement. With the spending review set to be unveiled on 11 June, departments have told The Independent that the Treasury wanted their plans agreed by the start of this weekend. But The Independent understands that Ms Rayner's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is one of a number of departments yet to settle with Ms Reeves and her deputy Darren Jones. The clash at the top of the Labour government comes as ministers resist cuts to their departments and marks a distinct clash over political philosophy between the two most senior women in the government. Ms Rayner wants a more progressive higher tax approach with fewer cuts, while Ms Reeves is being accused of wanting ' austerity 2.0'. Ms Reeves has also been struggling to reach deals with Yvette Cooper's Home Office; Steve Reed's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; and Ed Miliband's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Only defence with a spending package of 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product, and health budgets are protected, with others expected to find efficiency savings to help Ms Reeves balance the books. Sources have said that claims Ms Rayner stormed out of a meeting last weekend, slamming the door, were 'not true', but admitted conversations, while 'cordial', have 'not been easy'. Now it is understood that her demands for a proper settlement for local government in England, as well as funding for the affordable homes scheme beyond 2026, have left her at loggerheads with the chancellor. Trade unions are also taking a very close look at the settlement for councils which will be tied closely to pay demands over the coming years. Already councils like Birmingham have been facing potential bankruptcy because of tight budgets and wage demands. The stand-off comes just a week after a memo from Ms Rayner to Ms Reeves was leaked to the Daily Telegraph in a move which allies of the deputy prime minister described as 'poisonous'. In it she suggested eight different wealth taxes as an alternative to cuts as well as limiting benefits for migrants and reintroducing a payback scheme for middle class families claiming child benefit which was originally introduced by former Tory chancellor George Osborne and then ditched by Jeremy Hunt. An ally of the deputy prime minister noted that 'she is at least make the progressive case' for an alternative to Ms Reeves' strategy. The row comes amid concerns by Labour MPs that Ms Reeves is 'pushing for austerity 2.0'. Already the chancellor has been forced into accepting a U-turn on cutting winter fuel payments to pensioners. She and Sir Keir Starmer are also facing a rebellion from Labour backbenchers on cutting disability benefits. The chancellor has also had her hand forced on investment for red wall constituencies where Labour MPs are under threat of losing their seats to Reform. There have been reports that she plans to splurge on projects in the north of England and midlands by tweaking her strict borrowing rules. Ms Reeves is under added pressure because of the strict borrowing rules she has imposed on herself to maintain economic credibility as well as the election promises not to raise employee national insurance contributions, income tax or VAT. A Treasury source noted: 'More than half of departments have settled [funding agreements] three weeks out from the spending review, which is pretty unusual and the fact you'd always expect negotiations to go on.'
CNN
6 hours ago
- Business
- CNN
HHS budget proposal details significant cuts to National Institutes of Health, other agencies
Federal agenciesFacebookTweetLink Follow A budget proposal for the US Department of Health and Human Services details extensive cuts to funding for the National Institutes of Health, part of an effort to consolidate the work of its 27 institutes into just eight while reducing the agency's budget nearly 40%. The proposed cuts to federal health agencies were first revealed in a preliminary memo from White House budget officials in April. A newly released Budget in Brief document for fiscal year 2026 lays out HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plan to prioritize his Make America Healthy Again initiative with a $94.7 billion discretionary budget. The budget for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be slashed from more than $9 billion to just over $4 billion and funding for the US Food and Drug Administration cut from about $7 billion to just over $6.5 billion. However, some of the biggest changes will be felt at the NIH, where the budget document lists 2026 funding at $27.5 billion, down from nearly $48.5 billion in 2025. In the reorganized HHS, only three areas of the NIH – the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute on Aging – are set to be preserved. Institutes researching childhood illnesses, mental health, chronic disease, disabilities and substance abuse would be shuffled into five new entities: the National Institute on Body Systems, National Institute on Neuroscience and Brain Research, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Disability Related Research and National Institute of Behavioral Health. But even the surviving institutes won't be spared cuts: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had a budget of more than $6.5 billion in 2025 but will receive just over $4 billion in 2026. The National Cancer Institute, which received more than $7 billion for 2025, will get about $4.5 billion next year. And the National Institute on Aging will see its budget cut from $4.4 billion to less than $2.7 billion in 2026. The proposed NIH budget assumes a 15% cap on indirect costs that research institutions can charge the government, itself a highly controversial change that has been blocked in the courts. The new document also details plans for the Administration for Healthy America, a new agency created under Kennedy that will consolidate divisions such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration and several parts of the CDC. The new AHA is set to receive $14 billion in the 2026 budget. The 2026 HHS budget 'reflects the President's vision of making Americans the healthiest in the world while achieving his goal of transforming the bureaucracy,' the document says. At the NIH, restructuring 'will create efficiencies … that will allow the agency to focus on true science, and coordinate research to make the best use of federal funds.' But expert groups were more critical of the proposal. The NIH cuts 'would have far-reaching and irreversible consequences not only to the entire biomedical research enterprise, but also to the millions of Americans who rely on advances in biomedical research to safeguard and improve their health and their very lives,' Dr. Stephen Jameson, president of the American Association of Immunologists, said in a statement Friday. The agency supported hundreds of thousands of jobs in 2024 and contributed nearly $100 billion in economic activity across the US, Jameson said. 'Undermining NIH support threatens both local economies and our national competitiveness on the global scale.' Research!America, a nonprofit that advocates for science and innovation, said it was 'alarmed' by the budget proposal. 'If the proposal is enacted, Americans today and tomorrow will be sicker, poorer, and die younger,' President and CEO Mary Woolley said in a statement. 'American research has a proven track record of increasing survival, reducing the burden of illness, and creating jobs. Cutting research funding helps no one; instead, it hurts everyone.'
CNN
6 hours ago
- Business
- CNN
HHS budget proposal details significant cuts to National Institutes of Health, other agencies
A budget proposal for the US Department of Health and Human Services details extensive cuts to funding for the National Institutes of Health, part of an effort to consolidate the work of its 27 institutes into just eight while reducing the agency's budget nearly 40%. The proposed cuts to federal health agencies were first revealed in a preliminary memo from White House budget officials in April. A newly released Budget in Brief document for fiscal year 2026 lays out HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plan to prioritize his Make America Healthy Again initiative with a $94.7 billion discretionary budget. The budget for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be slashed from more than $9 billion to just over $4 billion and funding for the US Food and Drug Administration cut from about $7 billion to just over $6.5 billion. However, some of the biggest changes will be felt at the NIH, where the budget document lists 2026 funding at $27.5 billion, down from nearly $48.5 billion in 2025. In the reorganized HHS, only three areas of the NIH – the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute on Aging – are set to be preserved. Institutes researching childhood illnesses, mental health, chronic disease, disabilities and substance abuse would be shuffled into five new entities: the National Institute on Body Systems, National Institute on Neuroscience and Brain Research, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Disability Related Research and National Institute of Behavioral Health. But even the surviving institutes won't be spared cuts: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had a budget of more than $6.5 billion in 2025 but will receive just over $4 billion in 2026. The National Cancer Institute, which received more than $7 billion for 2025, will get about $4.5 billion next year. And the National Institute on Aging will see its budget cut from $4.4 billion to less than $2.7 billion in 2026. The proposed NIH budget assumes a 15% cap on indirect costs that research institutions can charge the government, itself a highly controversial change that has been blocked in the courts. The new document also details plans for the Administration for Healthy America, a new agency created under Kennedy that will consolidate divisions such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration and several parts of the CDC. The new AHA is set to receive $14 billion in the 2026 budget. The 2026 HHS budget 'reflects the President's vision of making Americans the healthiest in the world while achieving his goal of transforming the bureaucracy,' the document says. At the NIH, restructuring 'will create efficiencies … that will allow the agency to focus on true science, and coordinate research to make the best use of federal funds.' But expert groups were more critical of the proposal. The NIH cuts 'would have far-reaching and irreversible consequences not only to the entire biomedical research enterprise, but also to the millions of Americans who rely on advances in biomedical research to safeguard and improve their health and their very lives,' Dr. Stephen Jameson, president of the American Association of Immunologists, said in a statement Friday. The agency supported hundreds of thousands of jobs in 2024 and contributed nearly $100 billion in economic activity across the US, Jameson said. 'Undermining NIH support threatens both local economies and our national competitiveness on the global scale.' Research!America, a nonprofit that advocates for science and innovation, said it was 'alarmed' by the budget proposal. 'If the proposal is enacted, Americans today and tomorrow will be sicker, poorer, and die younger,' President and CEO Mary Woolley said in a statement. 'American research has a proven track record of increasing survival, reducing the burden of illness, and creating jobs. Cutting research funding helps no one; instead, it hurts everyone.'
Forbes
7 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Education Department Budget Request Includes Massive Cuts
Just adding a little flexibility here. The 2026 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education has been released, and it follows through on President Donald Trump's promise of deep cuts for a department marked for elimination. The budget summary begins by quoting a portion of Trump's speech from his signing of the executive order calling for the elimination of the department. 'But we're going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs,' he promised. The proposed budget seems to indicate that not only will states get more responsibility for education, but additional costs as well. Per Trump's promise, the proposal leaves Title I (support for schools with low income students) and IDEA (funding for students with special needs) intact. But billions of dollars for other programs have been slashed. The budget proposes a new item, the K-12 Simplified Funding Program, which 'would consolidate eighteen currently funded formula and competitive grant programs for elementary and secondary education into a single State formula grant program.' The stated goal is to eliminate 'siloes and bureaucratic red tape," however it appears to eliminate more than that. The K-12 SFP funding request is for $2 billion. The 2024 levels of combined funding for the 18 programs folded into K-12 SFP is over $6.5 billion. The consolidation comes with a $4.5 billion funding cut. One program alone, aimed at supporting effective instruction, was previously funded at $2.19 billion. Other programs to be combined into the K-12 SFP include programs for addressing literacy, supporting at-risk youth, arts in education, and American history and civics education. Community learning centers and rural education supports would also be lumped in. The federal government previously provided $380 million to help fund state assessments; that would also be part of the K-12 SFP. The budget request repeatedly notes that this combining of programs would give the states flexibility and 'discretion to support any activity that was previously allowed' under the previous program, but states will need a great deal of flexibility to make up for a $4.5 billion cut in funding for these programs. I have emailed the department for clarification of what certainly appears to be a cut on top of the consolidation and will add their reply if it arrives. Additionally, there are ten more programs under elementary and secondary education that have been cut entirely. Elimination of teacher-supporting grant programs like the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program and teacher and school leader incentive grants were explained with the line, 'Elimination of this program is part of the Administration's overall effort to restore fiscal discipline and reduce the Federal role in education.' The grants used by states to help with migrant education were likewise eliminated. Others, like Full Service Community Schools grants were eliminated with the note, 'States and localities, not the Federal government, are best suited to determine whether to support the activities authorized under this program or similar activities within their own budgets and without unnecessary administrative burden imposed by the Federal government.' English Language Acquisition, am $890 million program to support students learning English as a new language, was also cut with this language. In other words, if states think they want to do it, they can budget the funds themselves. Those eliminated programs represent another $1.1 billion in cuts. Meanwhile, the Charter Schools Program, with its history of fraud and waste, will get an additional $60 million. The IDEA grant funding is actually increased by around $650 million, but the budget request also consolidates other grant programs into the IDEA grants for state. Those additional programs account for the increase in IDEA funding, but it will apparently be up to states whether to use the funds that way. While the request keeps Career and Technical Education fairly steady, with a $2.3 million drop in national programs. However, the $729 million for adult education is eliminated entirely ("States and localities, not the Federal government, are best suited etc…") Beyond the K-12 funding, there are other cuts in the proposal. International Education and Foreign Language Studies are zeroed out because 'these programs are inconsistent with Administration priorities and do not advance American interests or values.' The Federal TRIO Program, a program aimed at providing college outreach and support to individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, is eliminated. The Teacher Quality Partnership, aimed at boosting the teacher pipeline and adding diversity to the teacher pool, is also eliminated. Everything under the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research wing of the department, is an asterisk until the administration is done 'reimagining a more efficient, effective, and useful IES.' However, the funding for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the test that measures how U.S. students are doing, is still there, albeit reduced from $193 million to $137 million. The salary request for the department moves from the 2025 figure of $2.769 billion to $2.514 billion (with IES still undetermined) even though personnel has been cut from 4,099 in 2024 to a projected 2,179 (though there are still personnel issues to be sorted out in court). The Office of Civil Rights would be cut from $140 million to $63 million. Unlike her predecessor Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary Linda McMahon did not request that Special Olympics funding be cut. This is a budget request, likely to be debated and revised and kicked around the halls of Congress before its done. This proposal is a far cry from actually eliminating the department, but it would certainly undercut the states' ability to support their students.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump administration unveils more detailed proposal for steep 2026 spending cuts
The Trump administration on Friday unveiled more details of the president's vision for how to fund the government in fiscal year 2026, expanding on its request earlier this month for steep spending cuts. The lengthy budget appendix, which stretches to more than 1,200 pages, comes as Republicans in both chambers have pressed the administration for more information about the president's proposed funding cuts. President Trump is calling for more than $160 billion in cuts to nondefense discretionary spending — amounting to about 22 percent — while requesting a boost to defense dollars. While presidential budget requests aren't signed into law, they can serve as a blueprint for lawmakers as they begin crafting their funding legislation. House appropriators will take up the first set of funding bills next week, with subcommittees on military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, rural development, and the Department of Agriculture set to meet to consider the proposals on Thursday. The White House rolled out Trump's so-called skinny budget about a month ago. It ran 46 pages, and it's not unusual for presidents to first roll out shorter versions of their proposals before releasing more details. But GOP appropriators said they needed more information about the president's funding wishlist, and budget hawks grumbled at the time about key details missing. 'There needs to be a lot more programmatic detail to write these bills to,' Cole told The Hill ahead of the current congressional recess. 'Their skinny line budget is just that. It's not a full presidential budget.' 'We will just do a better job for them,' Cole said at the time, if appropriators have more guidance from the administration. The documents released Friday build upon the cuts outlined in Trump's earlier request, which called for double-digit cuts for a list of agencies including the departments of Agriculture, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and State. The administration is also pushing for Congress to put dozens of programs on the chopping block, including the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Job Corps, the Community Development Block Grant program and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. However, the administration noted that, for defense programs, the document only contained appropriations language and that a 'separate document containing budget estimates for the Department of Defense will be published in June 2025.' It also said 'mandatory spending and receipts proposals in this document are limited to those proposals that support the president's 2026 discretionary request.' The forthcoming funding bills from the GOP-led House are expected to be more partisan in nature than in the Senate, where Democratic votes will be needed to get annual funding legislation across the The bills from the GOP-led House are expected to be more partisan in nature than in the Senate, where Democratic votes will be needed to get annual funding legislation across the floor. Democrats have already come out in strong opposition to the president's budget request. And there are serious trust issues in the party about eventual negotiations with Republicans on fiscal year 2026 funding as the administration has undertaken a sweeping operation to shrink the size of the government without buy-in from Congress. 'This is a draconian proposal to hurt working people and our economy, and it is dead on arrival in Congress as long as I have anything to say about it,' Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Friday. 'This is not a complete budget,' Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, also said Friday. 'We are supposed to start putting together the funding bills for 2026 next week. If, as expected, House Republicans follow what President Trump has proposed so far, it is not a serious effort to deliver for the American people.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
