Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney debuted what he called the “blueprint” for the Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget on Thursday, outlining a heady mix of new initiatives and spending cuts.
State Department will see a 28 percent cut, coming largely from foreign aid<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
One agency projected to take a big hit is the State Department, but Mulvaney was quick to clarify that the 28 percent cut was largely coming from a reduction in the aid provided to foreign governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That is not a commentary on the president\u2019s policies toward the State Department,” he said. “The foreign aid line items in the budget, many of them just happen to fall within the State Department\u2019s functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The president ran saying he would spend less money overseas and more money back home, so when you go to implement that policy, you go to things like foreign aid and those get reduced.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
The wall will get $1.5 billion in 2017<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mulvaney said that alongside the 2018 blueprint, OMB will also roll out a 2017 supplemental budget that requests an additional $30 billion for DoD and DHS, including $1.5 billion in funding for Trump\u2019s proposed border wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But don\u2019t expect the wall to go up next year, as the OMB director stressed that the new funding represented only the earliest stages of planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
“We haven\u2019t settled on construction types. We haven\u2019t settled on where we are going to start,” he said. “I think the funding provides for a couple of different pilot cases \u2014 different kinds of barriers in different kinds of places as we try and find the most cost-efficient, the safest and most effective border protections.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mulvaney said OMB looked for “the most inefficient, the most wasteful, the most indefensible programs in other areas” to fund the wall through cost offsets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked whether anticipated cuts to the Coast Guard \u2014 which are rumored to be used to pay for the wall \u2014 would impact border security, Mulvaney reiterated that parent agency DHS would be getting a 6 percent increase and that reports claiming the administration would be axing a Coast Guard cutter were “not accurate.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HUD, EPA and PBS take a hit<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mulvaney made clear that other agencies would be pruning “wasteful programs” off the books. Of those, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency are two entities likely to get a shave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked how the cuts to HUD squared with Trump\u2019s promise to fix inner cities, Mulvaney said that several of the agency’s programs weren\u2019t bearing fruit, which justified their elimination, and that other initiative in education and other programs would deliver on the administration\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“One of the other things the president said was that he was going to go after wasteful programs, duplicative programs and programs that simply don\u2019t work and a lot of those are in HUD,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We\u2019ve spent a lot of money on housing and urban development over the last decade without a lot to show for it. There a lot of programs that can\u2019t justify their existence and that\u2019s where we zeroed in.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The OMB director said that the EPA \u2014 which is rumored to see a 25 percent cut \u2014 will be able to “satisfy … beyond its core functions” with the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump administration will also begin to unwind total funding for the Public Broadcasting Service in the 2018 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president\u2019s budget will still have a tough hill to climb as it begins the long haul through Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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