The White Home on Friday referred to as for vital cuts to nondefense packages as a part of President Trump’s fiscal 2026 price range request, whereas proposing to beef up funding for protection and the president’s border priorities.

The so-called skinny price range is just not as detailed as ordinary presidential price range requests, which isn’t unusual for a president’s first-year proposal. Nevertheless, some price range hawks are already grumbling about what they are saying are key lacking particulars.

Republicans have stated they anticipate extra details about the president’s most well-liked spending route within the coming weeks. The request is a want record from the president, quite than a invoice that may be enacted. However the newest request from the White Home offers a vital look into the president’s funding priorities for the approaching fiscal yr as Republicans look to considerably cut back federal spending.

Right here’s 5 issues to know concerning the price range request.

Dozens of packages on the chopping block 

Trump proposed eliminating or zeroing out funding for dozens of federal packages the administration says are both duplicative, underperforming or are out of line with the administration’s priorities. 

The wide-ranging record of packages consists of the Low Earnings Dwelling Power Help Program, the Sexual Danger Avoidance Schooling program, Job Corps, the Group Growth Block Grant program, the Company for Public Broadcasting, the 400 Years of African American Historical past Fee, and the Teen Being pregnant Prevention Program, which the administration stated “is similar to the mandatory Personal Responsibility Education program.”

The U.S. Company for International Media, the U.S. Institute for Peace and the Nationwide Endowment for Democracy would additionally see the chopping block, as growth companies discover themselves within the administration’s crosshairs.

The price range proposes a virtually $27 billion discount for the Division of Housing and City Growth (HUD), with state rental help block grants on the chopping block. It as a substitute requires the transformation of the rental help packages right 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 stated. “A State-based formula program would also lead to significant terminations of Federal regulations.”

A widening hole between protection and nondefense

The price range request unveiled Friday included a lower to nondefense discretionary spending amounting to $163 billion, or about 23 p.c. Protection funding, in the meantime, would rise by about 13 p.c, the White Home stated.

That builds on the funding invoice the federal government is at present working beneath, which stored funding for 2025 roughly degree with 2024, whereas rising protection spending by $6 billion and slicing nondefense spending by $13 billion.

A breakdown within the Friday request outlines the proposed cuts by company, with the administration calling for cuts of about 18 p.c for the Division of Agriculture, 17 p.c for the Commerce Division, 15 p.c for the Schooling Division, 9 p.c for the Power Division, 44 p.c for the HUD, 31 p.c for the Inside Division, 8 p.c for the Justice Division, 35 p.c for the Division of Labor, 84 p.c for the Division of State and worldwide packages, and 19 p.c for the Treasury Division.

On the similar time, will increase are proposed for a number of companies, together with a roughly 13 p.c increase for the Division of Protection, a virtually 65 p.c increase for the Division of Homeland Safety, a roughly 6 p.c soar for the Transportation Division, and a rise of about 4 p.c for the Division of Veterans Affairs.

Protection hawks are nonetheless sad 

Administration officers touted the request at placing protection spending above $1 trillion, however the price range assumes a number of the will increase for protection and the administration’s border plans can be offered by way of Trump’s “big, beautiful” invoice that Republicans are working to assemble in Congress and that’s crafted individually from the appropriations course of.

Republicans are utilizing a course of generally known as price range reconciliation to advance the president’s tax agenda, whereas additionally making additional cuts to spending and boosting funding for protection and the president’s deportation plans. Whereas the method could be time-consuming and restrictive, it might in the end enable Republicans to jam by way of such a package deal with out having to fret about probably Democratic opposition within the Senate.

However some Republicans have come out in opposition to the gambit of counting funds from the reconciliation invoice towards fiscal 2026 protection 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 Companies Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) stated in a press release 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 stated “for months that reconciliation defense spending does not replace the need for real growth in the military’s base budget.”

Head Begin not talked about amid schooling cuts

Whereas the proposed price range does name for cuts to the Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS), OMB Director Russell Vought stated Friday that the reductions don’t embody adjustments to Head Begin packages, which offer early childhood schooling to low-income households.

His feedback come because the Trump administration is already going through ⁠authorized challenges after earlier reviews that Head Begin funding was set to be lower within the HHS’s price range amid workplace closures.

Nevertheless, the request does additionally define notable reductions on the schooling facet, together with proposals to get rid of Preschool Growth Grants and cuts funding for the Schooling Division’s Workplace for Civil Rights. 

Greater than $1.5 billion in spending reductions beneath a line merchandise for TRIO packages and Gaining Early Consciousness and Readiness for Undergraduate Packages (GEAR UP) are additionally proposed for the Schooling Division.

“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 said. “The lack of action by IHEs also meant that States and local school districts needed additional support to prepare low-income students for college.”

Tax cuts TBD

Whereas proposing a lower of greater than $2.4 billion to the IRS in a transfer it stated would finish “weaponization of IRS enforcement,” the price range request additionally states that the “elimination of certain complex tax credits and technology improvements would increase IRS efficiency.”

Pressed concerning the proposal on Friday, White Home officers stated all the administration’s proposals can be included within the extra detailed price range plan anticipated later within the yr. 

Congressional Republicans are negotiating trillions of {dollars} in tax cuts as a part of their reconciliation plan, which seeks to completely lock in expiring provisions enacted as a part of Trump’s signature 2017 tax legislation, and will embody additional tax cuts the president has proposed in current months. 

Whereas Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Accountable Federal Finances, stated the group was inspired to see the administration put ahead a plan that reduces spending, she added in a press release 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 stated, whereas calling on the president to rapidly launch a “full budget.”