Trump Budget 1.0
It’s not going to be full of details but what matters is that Congress will get a budget request from the White House today.
Appropriators want to get going on hearings with department heads, a part of the fiscal 2026 process that can’t happen until there’s at least a skeleton of a formal request — or in the Capitol Hill shorthand, a “skinny budget” — with a fuller version sometime later.
The plan calls for $557 billion in non-defense spending next year, which represents a cut of $163 billion from current levels, Bloomberg’s Gregory Korte, Erik Wasson and Tony Capaccio report. The proposal would slash environmental and renewable energy programs, and ask lawmakers to cancel $15 billion in former President Joe Biden’s signature infrastructure law for renewable energy programs. Read More
It also includes a record $1.01 trillion in national security spending, more than 13% over the current year’s figure, Capaccio reports. Read More
The appropriations hearings will start next week as another part of the process, called reconciliation, unfolds in different committees with policy responsibility. Those panels are trying to work through tax and spending cut proposals to meet President Donald Trump’s goals of shrinking the reach of the federal government and renewing the 2017 tax law.
Here’s a look at the progress so far. Where the dates are blank, the House committees didn’t try to meet this week.
There are still many major issues to resolve, including how deeply to cut spending on Medicaid and food stamps; how to offset the losses to the Treasury from extending tax cuts; and also heeding the requests of Republicans in states with high taxes to change the cap on deducting local and state taxes. It’s a sign of the difficulty of the task that the committees haven’t all said whether they’ll be able to hold markups next week. Read More on the latest negotiations.
If all of that sounds confusing, our team can help. Budget reporter Jack Fitzpatrick explains in plain English in THIS VIDEO, and BGOV subscribers, you have more in today’s Budget Brief, Congress Tracker, and this OnPoint.
Clawing Back Unspent $
We’ll also be watching for the White House’s list of takebacks, or rescissions — unspent funds the administration wants to make sure don’t remain officially available.
Trump signed an executive order last night ending all public subsidies for National Public Radio, and the Public Broadcasting Service. Read More
Air Traffic Control
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says he’ll unveil plans next week to overhaul aging US air traffic control systems and facilities.
It’ll be a proposal that’s bound to have a big price tag at a time when Congress is struggling to protect safety-net programs from the budget chopping block — so quite the balancing act ahead to make the vision a reality.
Earlier this week, air traffic control equipment and staffing issues led to flight delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport, and of course there was the fatal midair collision here in Washington. “You’re starting to see cracks in the system,” Duffy told reporters during a press briefing yesterday. Read More
Eye on the Economy: Interest Rates
The policymakers who manage interest rates have been consistently hinting that Americans shouldn’t expect any changes at next week’s meeting.
Inflation is running above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target and there’s lots of uncertainty about what to expect now that some of Trump’s tariffs are kicking in and others are merely paused. Circle Wednesday on your calendar, watch whether the benchmark interest rate stays where it is, at 4.5%, and listen for clues about what’s next at Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference.
That happens a day after we see the latest trade balance measurement, which last month was in the red with the US buying more from overseas than its businesses were exporting.
Also on Tuesday: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is scheduled to testify at a House hearing.
Trump Has EU’s Attention
Coming next week: a menu of European Union proposals in response to Trump’s trade war. That menu is said to include increasing European investments in the US and buying American liquefied natural gas.
On another track, the EU also is moving forward with plans to retaliate over the tariffs Trump imposed on the bloc should negotiations fail, with lists of additional US goods to hit with tariffs, as well as possible export restrictions. Read More
Back here in the US, Trump has acknowledged that tariffs could raise consumer prices, so maybe “children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls.” Ian Kullgren writes that potentially vulnerable Republicans are sticking with the president and defending his trade agenda. Read More
More tariff news:
- Tariff Uncertainty Drives Global Food Prices to Two-Year High
- China Hints at Possible Trade Talks Thaw With US
- GM Says Tariffs Will Mean a $5 Billion Hit to Bottom Line
Transgender Fencer
Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Green will demonstrate the expansiveness of her new panel’s jurisdiction on Wednesday when the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency holds a hearing to draw attention to a transgender athlete’s participation in sports.
Just two witnesses were invited to testify: Stephanie Turner, a fencer who refused to draw her sword against a transgender competitor, and the board chair of USA Fencing.
“USA Fencing must be held accountable for demeaning women and denying them of the chance to succeed in their own sport,” Greene (R-Ga.) said in a press release. “It is out of compliance with President Trump’s executive order and it should not be recognized as the National Governing Body for fencing if it continues to defy the law.”
Trump Administration in Court
A court case to watch next week: Tuesday arguments before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit over the axing of newer hires and recently promoted federal workers at the start of the Trump administration. The government contends that a lower court erred when it sided with states that wanted the firings reversed.
The case was brought by the attorneys general of 19 states and Washington, D.C. Read More
Before You Go
The kerfuffle over use of the Signal messaging app instead of secure government channels takes a twist with coverage of a White House meeting the day before Mike Waltz was removed as national security adviser and nominated to be ambassador to the UN.
In a photo taken by Reuters, Waltz is checking chats on what looks like a modified version of Signal, and a closeup reveals records of chats and calls with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. A partial text from from Vice President JD Vance can also be seen as well. Read More
A big new ruling to know about: A Trump-appointed federal judge ruled the president improperly invoked a 227-year-old wartime law to deport accused Venezuelan gang members, potentially setting up yet another Supreme Court battle. Read More
And more on the cost-cutting DOGE, the VA, and the FBI:
- DOGE put a college student in charge of using AI to propose rewrites to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s regulations, Wired reports.
- NPR reports on a program that was shut down yesterday with no replacement in place. It was created after missteps by the Veterans Affairs Department left homeowners with no affordable way to catch up if they fell behind on their VA-backed home loans. Read More
- Nearly five years after some FBI agents knelt with protesters during a demonstration against racism following the killing of George Floyd, those agents were reassigned to less-coveted positions, CNN reports.
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Andrew Satter in Washington also contributed to this story.
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