Trump agencies tell Congress what to chop in 22 percent budget slashing

Federal agencies began sending the nitty-gritty of President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to Congress on Friday, detailing which programs he wants Republicans to cut deeply — or wipe out entirely — when they vote to fund the government in September.

Expanding upon the so-called skinny budget the White House transmitted to Capitol Hill earlier this month, the new documents detail the White House’s ambitions for spending cuts across government agencies. They show which accounts the president wants GOP lawmakers to target as Trump seeks non-defense funding cuts of more than 22 percent in the upcoming fiscal year and a flat military budget.

In “budget in brief” documents, agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, along with the departments of Education and Health and Human Services, detailed their requests to cut billions of dollars from their budgets. The White House is expected to post more detailed budget documents later.

Among the proposed cuts to most federal departments, the administration is asking Congress to slash $12 billion from federal education programs, $5 billion from agriculture efforts and a total of more than $60 billion from health, housing and community development work.

Senior GOP members of both the House and Senate have already scorned Trump’s initial budget request, heightening the conflict between Republicans on Capitol Hill and those in the Trump administration as Congress races to head off a government shutdown in four months.

Just how deeply congressional Republicans are willing to cut federal programs will start to become clear next week, when House GOP appropriators plan to debut the first of a dozen annual funding bills. That includes the measure that covers agriculture programs and the Food and Drug Administration, and the bill that funds programs supporting military construction and veterans.

The White House has not threatened to veto funding bills that exceed the president’s request. But Trump’s budget chief has said the administration hasn’t ruled out continuing to use “impoundment” to withhold congressionally approved funding the president doesn’t want to spend.

“Impoundment is still on the table and something we will consider,” White House budget director Russ Vought said this week on Fox Business, repeating what he said earlier this month at the time of the skinny budget’s release.

That threat has irked Republican lawmakers who argue that the tactic is illegal under the 51-year-old law created to prevent presidents from undermining the “power of the purse” Congress is granted under the Constitution.

Whatever government funding legislation makes it to Trump’s desk in the fall will first need the support of several Democrats in the Senate, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is under pressure to hold the line against drastic cuts after caving in March to help advance the stopgap Republicans unilaterally crafted after abandoning bipartisan negotiations.

Attracting Democratic support in the Senate is likely to require higher funding levels that prompt Republican opposition on the other side of the Capitol, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole acknowledged this month.

“Anything they do to get Democratic support in the Senate — which they have to do under their own rules — will almost certainly cost me Republican support over here,” said the Oklahoma Republican.

That was not the case earlier this year when House Republicans mustered near-unanimous GOP support in their chamber to pass a funding patch through September, but several House Republicans have already warned leaders that they wouldn’t back another stopgap this fall. Lawmakers in both parties also want to pass updated funding levels, while locking in earmarks to ensure federal cash flows to specific projects in their districts.

“I don't want to do it again,” Cole told reporters this month about the prospect of another continuing resolution. “I want to deal.”